Cynthia  Bishop

BISHOP, CYNTHIA (1901^1999) Cynthia Bishop was born November 16, 1901, in Landrum, South Carolina, to James Robert and Mary Elizabeth Moss Bishop. She graduated from Asheville Normal School in 1917, where she majored in home economics. She relocated to Washington, D. C. to serve as director of food service for the Young Women's Christian Home, while serving as an intern at George Washington University.

Her next position was as chief dietitian at William and Mary College, where she remained for five years before beginning he career with mental hospitals at the Spring Grove Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Bishop later received a bachelor of science degree in foods and nutrition from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah and a master's degree in institution management from New York's Columbia University. During WWII she served her country in the United States Army.

In 1956, Bishop began her nineteen-year career as the Director of Food Services for the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. She established a modern, efficient system for providing delicious yet low-cost meals for the patients of the state's facilities. Over the years she pioneered a number of "firsts" for the state-wide program, ranging from the introduction of convenience foods to standardizing costs on a per patient basis.

At th etime of her retirment, Miss Bishop directed food service operations for an agency serving 23,000 patients, with 16,000 employees and a budget of about $29 million. She developed numerous training programs for MH-MR food service staff to constantly improve the efficiency and quality of food service operations for the agency. She also created an internship program for students to gain experience in the field of dietetics. One close friend noted, "Cynthia always believed that the well-being of her patients was more important than any institutional or political consideration . . . she taught us that in life there are issues on which we must take a stand . . . and regardless of the obstacles to fight for that principle to the end."

Cynthia Bishop was a member of the Texas and American Dietetic Associations and the Instituate for Food Technology. She retired in 1975 and moved to Sun City Center, Florida where she lived until her death on February 8, 1999. She was survived by two sisters, Mrs. Edward Muldoon of Sun City Center, Florida and Mary Ann Simpson of Dallas, Pennsylvania as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Obituary of Cynthia Bishop, Austin American-Statesman, February 11, 1999; found-in-file statements from family and friends.