Early Life
Barry Chapman Bishop was born on January 13, 1932 to Robert Wilson Bishop, a sociologist who was to become a dean at the University of Cincinnati, and Helen Rebecca Bishop. He was fascinated by climbing from an early age, spending his summers with the YMCA in Colorado and joining the Colorado Mountain Club at age nine or ten. Under the tutelage of the club's members, many of whom were also members of the 10th Mountain Division, Bishop quickly learned mountaineering skills and was guiding expeditions in the Rockies and Tetons by age 12.
He attended school in Cincinnati; first a private school, and a private college preparatory school beginning in 8th grade. He began his undergraduate education at Dartmouth, where he roomed with Rodger Ewy and Bill Chafee. Following an acute lung infection, Barry soon switched to the University of Cincinnati, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Geology in 1954. As part of his undergraduate research, he did field work in the Mt. McKinley area in the summer of 1951, during which time he participated in Bradford Washburn's expedition, reaching the summit on July 10, 1951 to claim the fourth ascent of the mountain and the first by the West Buttress route. He met Lila Mueller, also an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati, and the two were married in 1955.
In the summer of 1952, Barry and Rodger Ewy climbed guideless on many "classics" in Europe, among which the Zugspitze Ridge, Cime Grande in the Dolomites, Z'mutt Ridge on the Matterhorn, the traverse from Gornergrat to Monte Rosa via summits of Breithorn, Castor and Pollux and both summits of Monte Rosa, and the Dent du Requin Needle on Mont Blanc. Barry soloed the Italian Ridge on the Matterhorn.
His studies continued at Northwestern University, where he earned a masters in geography in 1954–1955, studying shear moraines on the Greenland Icecap. During his work in Greenland he met Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, and after joining the Air Force, served as scientific advisor to Byrd's staff with Admiral Dufek, at the Antarctic Projects Office in Washington, D.C., where he monitored international scientific programs in polar research. By 1958, when he was honorably discharged from the Air Force at age 27, Bishop had accumulated considerable skills as a mountaineer, polar scientist, photographer and explorer.
His daughter Tara is now the wife of Greg Mortenson, the co-author of Three Cups of Tea.
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