Arthur Francis Bishop

Arthur Francis Bishop died on November 9, 2021 and was born on October 8, 1925 in Red Bluff, California, the third son of Floyd and Anna Bishop. His future wife Ellen Lothrop was born the same year on November 21. Both of their families were lucky enough to both keep jobs during the Great Depression. Art’s family moved around Northern California, living in Red Bluff, San Francisco, Sacramento, Susanville, and Chico until he was 10 years old, finally settling in Sacramento. He attended the same junior high school and high school (Sacramento High School) as Ellen, and they took various classes together, including orchestra, in which she was concertmaster, and he was principal of the second violins. When asked why he hadn’t continued playing the violin, he would quip, “I never want to play second fiddle to her again.”

Art graduated from Sacramento High School and entered the University of California, Berkeley at the age of 16. During his first year, he was close friends with and took physics classes with Albert “Al” W. Overhauser, the future postdoctoral advisor of his daughter Marilyn. He told about how he would be studying for his physics tests, memorizing all the formulas, and Al was scold him, saying, “If you just understand the basic principles, you can figure out the formulas for himself.” Needless to say, he found this rather frustrating. Of course, Al Overhauser later became a famous physicist.

In the next year, Art was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. He spent 6 weeks in the University of California hospital with a fever, and the doctors were afraid he was going to die. Fortunately, they were able to obtain Penicillin, which was in an early experimental stage, and that was the cure.

When World War II started, Art’s two brothers were in the Army Air Force, and Art had wanted very much to join them in order to serve his country. A couple of months after recovering from osteomyelitis, he received a call from the local draft board. Since Art wanted to be in the military, he didn’t mention his long sickness. After basic training, Art was sent to join the 106th Infantry Division at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The division was preparing to ship overseas, and was deployed to the front lines facing the German Army. On December 16, Art was in an outpost when the Germans attacked to start the Battle of the Budge. Art was captured, endured severe treatment, lost 50 pounds, and remained a POW until the end of World War II. Art was liberated on May 2, 1945, and after a short rehabilitation period, was discharged and prepared to go back to the University of California, Berkeley.

In the meantime, Ellen graduated from High School and started Junior College. Her father was then transferred to San Francisco. Her parents bought a home in Berkeley so that Ellen could live at home and attend Cal. She earned her degree in Mathematics.

Art and Ellen, who had lost contact with each other for years, met by coincidence on the University of California, Berkeley campus. He was leaving class, going down a set of stairs, and she was going up the same set of stairs to go to class. He immediately turned around to follow her. Their friendship blossomed into love and marriage.

They got married August 23, 1947 and ten months later, along came Michael Arthur, June 19, 1948. The pregnancy was difficult and Ellen landed in the hospital. Some of those weeks were so terrible she thought she might die. Both her mother and grandmother had also suffered terribly during their pregnancies, and Ellen did too. It became easy to see things only in negative terms, but Ellen fought it. “I think, maybe, it was somewhere along

there that I realized you have to keep yourself happy. You cannot give in to what this is. You can’t survive if you don’t make yourself happy, and I had to learn … I think I had to learn to be happy to stay well.”

Both Art and Ellen kept focused. Art graduated first. It took Ellen two years after Michael was born to finish school. It took a year after Mike was born for Ellen to graduate. She’d push the baby carriage with the baby and dirty laundry to her mother’s house, which was only a few blocks away, and go off to classes. When she returned, the baby was fed, her mother gave her lunch, and she took clean clothes home. The laundry load got a little bigger when Marilyn Frances came along January 19, 1950. By this time, the family had moved to Sacramento, Ellen had graduated and Art had a job.

After receiving a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkley, Art’s first job out of college was working for PG&E. He’d inspect places and write down what was needed to install service to a house or a building. Art wanted to make it on his own merit and intelligence. His next job led him to work for the state in the Department of Architecture, but he didn’t stay long. He joined the Air Force Reserve and received a direct commission in 1949 as a Second Lieutenant. He was recalled to active duty for the Korean War and was stationed in Alaska, and he moved there with his wife and two babies for two years and was promoted to First Lieutenant.

His next assignment was at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland near Washington D. C., and he moved there with his family for three years. Next the Air Force sent him and his family to Oklahoma A&M University, where Art earned his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree in one year. Ellen studied agriculture during that same year, and so the entire family went to school that year, since by that time, Marilyn was in first grade, and Michael was in third grade.

After the year in Oklahoma, the Air Force moved Art and his family to New Mexico, where he was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base. That’s where Art was asked if he wanted to go into airplanes or space. He chose designing satellites and missiles and was soon promoted to Captain.

In the 1950’s Art had what he described as an “interesting” experience. He said, “There was an accident over in Kentucky and a B-52, which had live nuclear bombs aboard, ran into the tanker that was supposed to be refueling it and they both went down, and of course, that created a great deal of stir. We had been in the Program and we had been analyzing nuclear weapons and what it took to (manage) the safety aspect of it.”

[Reference Note: October 15, 1959, Hardinsberg, Kentucky; A B-52 bomber carrying two atomic bombs collided at 32,000 feet with a KC-135 refueling aircraft shortly after initiating refueling procedures near Hardinsberg, Kentucky. The ensuing crash killed 8 crew members and partially burned one of the weapons. No nuclear material was released, however, and the unarmed weapons were recovered intact. Both planes had departed from Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. www.cdi.org/issues/nukeaccidents/accidents.htm]

“So, I was selected as the one representative from Kirtland, which is the special weapons center, to go there and go check. So, I went there, (and there were) the whole bunch of Generals and stuff… and you see, they treated bodies differently. The bodies that they left there, they were all black and the bombs- they had covered up because they’d let the news people in to take a look. And then, the Generals, there were several Generals there, told them, ‘Kick them out.’ and then, told me, ‘You go do your thing.’

“So, I had to go look in the airplane, see which things had gone right versus wrong, and I knew how many things it took to actually

trigger a nuclear bomb, various steps had to happen, in sequence. And so, I was able to inspect that kind of stuff. I did that. You would see big huge bombs, and I stood on one of them. The warhead is covered by high explosives, and the reason you can do it is that the high-explosives all have to explode at the same time and the crisis is to make some nuclear mass, and that gets hot enough where the other side goes thermonuclear.

Art’s next assignment was to attend the Air Force Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama, 1960. The next assignment was the Air Force Technical Applications Center in Fairfax County, Virginia. Soon after arriving there, near Thanksgiving, Timothy David (now known as Prasanna) was born on November 26, 1961. The next summer, Art was promoted to Major. The family spent four and a half years there before Art was assigned to the Space Systems Division in the Los Angeles area in January, 1966 where he became Deputy Director for Engineering of the VELA Satellite program. He received the Air Force Commendation Medal for his work during the next year and a half. The citation reads, “During this period, Major Bishop’s outstanding management, technical capabilities and dedication to the program provided a significant contribution to the completely successful launch and orbital operations of the Vela Launch IV advanced earth oriented spacecraft. The results of this launch were of national importance in the furthering of a space-based nuclear detection capability.” At that point, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became Director of the Vela Satellite program.

The purpose of the Vela program was to detect nuclear detonations by the Soviet Union in order to assure compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. Vela IV was actually a pair of satellites, launched on April 28, 1967, the first two of the six satellites of the Advanced Vela design to come. There had been six previous satellites in the Vela program, in the Vela Hotel design, and those previous satellites were able to detect nuclear explosions in space, while the Advanced design allowed detection of nuclear explosions both in space and in the atmosphere. There were four other satellites launched with the Advanced Vela design, the Vela V pair on May 23, 1969, and the Vela VI pair on April 8, 1970. The Advanced Vela design was originally projected to last for 18 months, but the project was so well managed that the expected lifetime was changed to seven years. In fact, the last satellite to be shut down was one of the Vela V pair, and that satellite lasted for 15 years.

Not only were the Vela satellites successful in detection tests of nuclear weapons, the data that they captured have enabled important advances in basic scientific research. On July 2, 1967, the Vela IV and Vela III satellites detected a flash of gamma radiation unlike any known nuclear weapons signature. This alerted the astronomical community to the existence of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) of supernovas, now recognized as the most violent events in the universe, thought to be generated during the formation of black holes, giving insight as to the size of our galaxy, which was unknown before this discovery.

While in LA, after the launch of the Vela VI satellites, Art retired from the military on June 1, 1970. He then joined Aerojet Electrosystems Company, where he continued work associated with nuclear detection satellites. Within a few years, he was promoted to Vice President and Director of the Defense Support Program at Aerojet. At the time, it was the only United States satellite-based missile detection system. Art continued this work for 18 years and retired from Aerojet in 1988.

In retirement, Art turned his attention to managing his family’s walnut orchard in the Red Bluff, California area, while still living in Torrance, CA in the LA area. Then, since their three children had already moved out, in 1993, in order to be closer to the orchard

in Red Bluff, California, Art and Ellen moved to Sacramento. In January of 2001, while attending the festivities during the Presidential Inauguration of George W Bush, Art and Ellen met the Executive Director of the Purple Heart Foundation who provided them with tickets to an event honoring veterans. As a result of that kindness, Art became an active member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH), and Ellen became an active member of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Purple Heart (LAMOPH). Both Art and Ellen have served as officers at the local, state, and national levels.

When Ellen joined the LAMOPH, she learned that an important duty was to support veterans at the VA, and so she volunteered. She was assigned the duty of “Patient Visitation”, so she was assigned to enter each patient’s room, have a cheerful conversation with them and offer them some comfort items. Art joined her in a short time. They found that lap robes were very popular with patients. Thus, at their own expense, they purchased many bolts of fleece fabric with military and other interesting designs, and, cut the fabric into approximately 4’ by 5’ lap robes and used a serger to make professional for the lap robes that they would give away to the patients.

Each Monday morning, Art and Ellen went to the Mather VA hospital. They brought the lap robes and made the rounds, visiting with patients, and offering them lap robes and other comfort items, as well as pleasant conversation. They did this for more than twelve years. They would often find patients who were rather depressed, and after talking to them, the patients often developed a more cheerful and positive attitude from that point forward. Patients would see them years later and thank them for the positive effect that those visits had on their lives.

Art and Ellen Bishop were both very active in veterans affairs. As delegates to the VA Northern California Health Care Council, they kept up to date on VA activities and can make suggestions on ways to improve the treatment of veterans. They also attended the annual POW breakfast at Beale Air Force Base, and participated in parades and other patriotic activities.

Most recently, in the MOPH, Art was National POW/MIA Coordinator. He was also also a member of the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization, the Air Force Association, and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). Art was also the Purple Heart Representative to the VA Northern California Health Care System.

Meanwhile, Art and Ellen continued to manage and expand the walnut orchard, which had originally been started by Art’s father and mother. The original orchard consisted of 44 acres and a small house. Over the years, they expanded the operation to 210 acres. While living in Sacramento, they spent weekends in one of the houses at their orchard and managed the orchard, renting out other houses on the property. In December 2016, they decided that at their age, it was too difficult to maintain two houses, and so they moved to Red Bluff. The house that they had been using in the orchard was in need of repair. It needed a redesigned kitchen and laundry room, a new walk-in closet and bathroom, and various other enhancements. They were fortunate enough to meet Richard (Rick) Gumm, who made the renovations a reality. Art and Ellen developed a close friendship with Rick, his wife Jeni, and their disabled son Chuckie. Art and Ellen considered them to be part of their own family, and Rick and Jeni treated Art and Ellen as though they were their own parents. They grieved together when Chuckie died two years ago. Since that time, Rick and Jeni have become Art and Ellen’s guardian angels, tending to their every need 24 hours a day. Michael, Marilyn, and Prasanna are eternally grateful for all their efforts in taking care of Art in his last days and for watching over Ellen

Art leaves behind his wife Ellen after 74 years of happily married life. Also carrying on his legacy are his three children, Michael, who is a cosmetic chemist, Marilyn, who is a physicist, and Prasanna, who is a musician. Also carrying on his tradition are seven grandchildren, Benjamin Certner and Geoffrey Certner, who are Marilyn’s sons, Jessica Bishop, who is Prasanna’s daughter, and Elison Bishop, Edwin Bishop, Evin Bishop, and Elyana Bishop, who are Michael’s children.