The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: News

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop (in black shorts), a victim of the Virginia Tech shootings, played on the club Toli team while a student at the University in the 1990s.

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop (far left), faces two defenders during a toli game in an undated photo.

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop, right, in an undated photo from the University's Toli club team

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop, left, carries the ball in his toli sticks as he plays for the University's Toli club team in an undated photo.

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop poses in an undated photo from the University's Toli club team.

Media Credit: COURTESY GEORGIA MOORE Jamie Bishop, on right with torn shirt, after a rough game of toli in an undated photo

Calls and e-mails flooded the offices on Joe Brown Hall's second floor Tuesday as former German students and faculty learned a member of the University community was one of the Virginia Tech massacre victims.

Colleagues of University alumnus Christopher Jamie Bishop described him as friendly and enthusiastic.

Bishop, a German professor, was among the first shot and killed when the Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui entered his introductory German class Monday morning and opened fire.

Erin Sheehan, one of the Virginia Tech students in Bishop's class, told reporters only four people in the roughly 25-person class walked out of the room. Everyone else was injured or dead.

Bishop graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University with a bachelor's degree in German studies in 1993 and with a master's degree in German linguistics in 1998.

Peter Jorgensen worked closely with Bishop as his lead professor and remembers him as enthusiastic and social.

"He was able to get very excited about things and want to follow-up on them," Jorgensen said. "He was a delightful student in that regard."

"He was a delightful young man, full of promise," he said. Jorgensen shared his fondest memory of Bishop.

"He took my Germanic Romantic Literature class as an undergraduate," he said. "When we came to the part about Vikings, he just loved it. He pestered me - in a nice way - for a couple of months to teach a course on Viking civilization. I'd never done it before, and I've never done it since. About 30 students took it."

When Bishop received a Fulbright Scholarship, Jorgensen helped him find a town in Germany where he also could study Vikings.

Bishop met his wife, Stephanie Hofer, while studying in Germany. She also works in Virginia Tech's German program.

"She is a very sweet, very competent young lady," Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen also said Bishop "liked people, liked to be around people."

"My wife worked in the honors department, and he would come by and plunk down and talk to her about whatever came up."

Betty J. Hill said the department is "devastated."

"I've been on the phone all day trying to talk people through it," said the business manager in the Germanic and Slavic languages department who spoke to Bishop at Virginia Tech just two weeks ago.

She was working on a retirement present for Jorgensen.

"He called me 30 minutes after he got my e-mail," Hill said. "The whole time on the phone, instead of giving me the information, he wanted to find out where everyone was and what they were doing."

Even though she had spoken to him recently, she said she was shocked to hear he was one of the victims - she never thought she would know one of the victims of the atrocity.

"I saw the news yesterday, but I didn't think it would be anyone I knew," she said. "Until I heard it was a German professor."

University alumnus Grant Blankenship and University librarian John Guy said it has been years since they last talked to Bishop. But Blankenship said he remembers Bishop as "intellectually curious."

"He enjoyed living and was curious about life," Blankenship said.

The three played toli together while Bishop was in graduate school. The sport is a traditional Native American stickball game Blankenship likened to lacrosse. Their team was called the UGA Flying Rats.

"Our friendship was on the toli field," Blankenship said. "I played defense and he played offense so we hit each other a lot and had a great time."

Guy, who was also in a University karate club with Bishop, said he was a "big, long-time player."

- Contributing: Juanita Cousins

Jamie Bishop played Toli, a game similar to lacrosse, while a student at the University. His former teammates shared their thoughts about him on an e-mail listserv Tuesday. Excerpts are reprinted below.

Georgia Moore, alumna, BA in Journalism and MS in Microbiology:

I was watching Good Morning America and Jamie's photo was the second shown of the people who died. It was a terrible shock to learn about his death that way. But then again, there's no easy way.

Jamie was fast as lightning on the Toli field, could turn on a dime, and was a great shooter. He often played wearing a baseball hat backwards, and if you were playing against him, this was particularly annoying because he was so fast, it rarely got knocked off. He also ended up wearing half a shirt a lot, with somebody behind him holding the other half. That's because a piece of his shirt is all they could catch of him. But more than that, he was an awesome person, who touched everyone he met in a positive way.

Yesterday's events just remind us that we need to live life with a clear conscious because we're here one second, gone the next. It's also a reminder that much of everyday life doesn't really matter. What matters is the way you touched other people's lives. According to that yardstick, Jamie was a successful, successful man.

The UGA Toli team and alumni are working on a Web site memorial to Jamie, who is and always will be a part of our family.

John Guy:

Jamie was an enthusiastic, genuine person. Playing with him or battling against him required your full attention. He loved those fast breakaways with that trademark circling around, leaping shot of his.


John Burrows, alumnus:

Jamie was a kind and thoughtful soul. I will always remember him as a good natured but focused player on the toli field. He will be sorely missed.

Not really sure what to say, because even though I haven't seen Jamie in years, this is just crushing news to me.

Jason Edwards, alumnus:


I keep remembering the first time Jamie came out to play ball. Ray Knapp, Billy Caldwell and I thought he was too damn cocky for his own good. We dubbed him "Smiley" because he wouldn't stop grinning, even when we took him down hard. Truth is, we were just too stupid to remember his name. He sure earned our respect that day, getting up again & again and he never lost that smile once. Well, we remembered his name after that game. Jamie was one of the kindest, most upbeat folks I met during my five years in Athens and it's just a sadder world without that kid's grin.

Victor "Dee" Fraker, alumnus:

The first and only thought that I keep having is of Jamie high stepping around people, and yes that smile. I do not remember him being tackled very much ever, he was one the Choctaw used to love to try and catch. I also remember how much he made me run because of those circling runs…..He was probably one of the happiest people I ever met.

I fully support anything we can do for his family. Toli alumni need to stay connected and supportive. This amazing team has lasted and endured because we have such a good support system and as Jamie was testament to a wonderful base to begin with.

….I just can not get that image out of my head of Jamie flying through mid-field with his sticks held high with determination in his eye.

Scott Keith, alumnus:

The first thing that always pops in my head when i think of Jamie is a game in Athens (Sandy Creek park i think) in which a Conehatta player finally tackled him, after trying in vain for much of the game. Apparently the guy was just a little frustrated at Jamie's elusiveness, because he sat on him and punched him in the face one time, then let him up. Jamie of course was not happy about the flagrant foul, as all Flying Rats were, but the game continued as if nothing happened. Don't quite remember, but I can imagine the incident made him all the more determined and effective in the game. At the after-game party at our house, we watched the game tape, and all the Conehatta thought it quite amusing and trivial.

I too remember him liking to jump over people and shoot from the air.

He was a good man.

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