Clifford Bishop

Retiree Clifford Bernard Bishop, a resident of Walnut Creek, died Sept. 10. He was 90.

Born in Oakland on May 25, 1920, he grew up in Oakland and attended the University of California, Berkeley, before leaving to enter the military for World War II.

He was stationed first in Alaska before he became an officer, and was sent to Boston to attend Harvard and MIT. While in Boston, he met his future wife, Violet Louise Hall of Durham, N.C. They were married in New York City in 1944. In 1945, the couple moved to Oakland and Bishop worked at Cutter Laboratory in Berkeley for several years.

Bishop was called back into the military for the Korean War and the family relocated to Pismo Beach. In 1953, they moved to Lafayette, Calif., into a home they maintained for the rest of their lives. From 1956 through 1983, Bishop worked at the Laboratory as a mechanical and reproduction engineer, managing a large group within the Mechanical Engineering Support Division.

Many of Bishop’s designs became machines that were the first of their kind in the development and use of a microfilm system to store bulky and sensitive graphic materials.

He retired from LLNL in 1983, but remained active the rest of his life, helping his sons remodel their homes, developing a phonetic language and software to translate typing into speech on his desktop computer and traveling about the country with his wife in their RV.

Bishop was preceded in death by his parents, Erwin Hiram Bishop and Helen Hine Bishop and his wife of 60 years, Vi Bishop.

He is survived by his sons, Thomas Allen Bishop of Lafayette and Donald Bernard Bishop, daughter-in-law, Betty Mortensen Bishop, grandchildren, Andrew Clifford Bishop and Emma Katherine Bishop of Roseville, Minn.; brother, Gerald Bishop and sister-in-law June Warren Bishop of Danville, Calif.; nephews, Randall Bishop and Matthew Bishop, and niece Maria Bishop Bizzack and their families in California; nephew, Doug Ellis, nieces Brenda Ellis Barringer, Gail Ellis Coates, and Lee Hall Worthington and their families in North Carolina and the East Coast.

Family and friends are invited to attend a graveside service today (Sept. 24) at 1 p.m. at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland and a reception from 4-6 p.m. at Bishop’s home of more than six decades at 3312 Helen Lane in Lafayette.