Family Wants Legacy of Peace at Va. Tech
The family of killed professor wants campus building dedicated to peace studies.
Aug. 21, 2007 — -- On the morning of April 16, 35-year-old Jamie Bishop was teaching his German class at Virginia Tech when he was shot.
Bishop was one of five professors killed that day in the deadly massacre by student Seung-Hui Cho.
The faculty members who died that day valued education, dedicating their lives to teaching future generations.
Liviu Librescu and Kevin Granata both taught engineering science and mechanics.
G.V. Loganathan was a civil and environmental engineering professor.
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak was a French instructor; Bishop, a German professor.
"Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts talked exclusively with Bishop's parents, Michael and Jeri, and sister, Stephanie Loftin, about their lives four months after the shooting and their memories of Bishop.
"We have good days and bad days," Jeri Bishop said. "We imagine that's the way it is for the other 32 families that were involved in this."
Michael said he thinks of his son every day.
"There's no way not to," he said. "Sometimes when we're alone, we just look at each other and we know what we're thinking about and we cry, and I imagine that's going to go on for a long time."
Bishop made his home in Blacksburg, Va., but his roots were in Pine Mountain, Ga., where he grew up with Loftin.
"Jamie was such a people person. I think he learned languages so that he could talk to all people," Loftin said.
His father said Bishop was popular with his students.
"He was tremendously approachable," Michael said. "He was always just one of the guys except when he got in the classroom and started teaching."
Michael is an award-winning science-fiction author. He said Jamie was a great teacher, but could have had a great future in art design.
But in an instant, all of those dreams were taken away.
The Bishops all remember the day they heard the news of the shooting.
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