Charles Bishop

Charles William Bishop (Chuck) of Kasson, Minnesota, aged 81, passed away, surrounded by family and friends, on February 22, 2019 at Seasons Hospice in Rochester, Minnesota, where he had resided for three weeks, due to complications from a fall on the ice.

He was born August 23, 1937 on the family’s dairy farm near Dallas, Wisconsin. Chuck attended a one-room primary school, and graduated from Barron High School in 1955 where he was a stand-out running back for the school’s football team.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s aviation branch and served as a crew member on AD5N planes with 85 takeoffs and landings from the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Bennington and U.S.S. Forrestal. His return to college, and planned wedding, were interrupted by a naval reserve call up in the months prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was assigned to a patrol bomber squadron in Brooklyn, New York that was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His assignment was to photograph Soviet container ships believed to be carrying missile components and supplies during very low altitude fly overs.

Discharged in 1962, he finished his degree in agriculture education from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls the next year. For the next five years he worked for International Harvester as a company field representative calling on implement dealerships in southern Minnesota.

That led him to a successful and long-running business partnership with Charles Wachholz. They purchased a dealership in Kasson, Minnesota in 1967, which became Bishop & Wachholz, Inc. The business grew despite the turbulent farm economy which forced other local dealers out of the market. That was in part due to the friendship between Chuck and Charlie, who never argued, a knack for hiring wonderful employees, and a reputation for fair business dealings with area farmers. They sold the business in 1997.

Chuck married Kay Bedor of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1962, a wedding put on hold because of his naval reactivation. They were married for 56 years, and had two children, Peter, now living in Ludlow, Kentucky, and Mark, who, following a paralyzing accident in college, lived at home for eight years before his death in 1998.

Travel was a big part of Chuck and Kay’s second half of their marriage – trips to Jamaica, Hawaii, Alaska, western Canada, Nova Scotia, and several wandering road trips through the eastern and western U.S. – and a few overseas trips – New Zealand and Australia; England, Scotland and Wales; a D-Day themed tour of London, the Normandy landing beaches, and Paris with son Peter; and in 2017 one last trip, likely the best, to Israel, again with Peter plus John and Mythyl Todor and Donella Rossi from their church.

Chuck loved the Lord and served Him faithfully at the First Baptist Church in Kasson where he and Kay have attended since moving to the community in 1968. He served as church treasurer, AWANA leader, Vacation Bible School jack-of-all-trades, choir and drama team member, and church “barista.”

Despite a number of significant health issues in his later years – congestive heart failure, double bypass surgery, three pacemakers, type I diabetes, kidney disease, carotid artery disease, stage four prostate cancer – Chuck was very active. He bowled three times a week (with a high game of 268 just last year), golfed until the cancer diagnosis, chatted with neighbors and acquaintances, attended KoMet games, watched lots of football and basketball, and rooted for the Vikings unless they were playing the Packers. He won multiple football contests published in the DCI.

Chuck was preceded in death by his son Mark, parents Kennard and Verna Bishop of Dallas, Wisconsin, and father-in-law and mother-in-law Alfred and Coy Bedor of Minneapolis. He is survived by his wife, Kay, son, Peter of Ludlow, Kentucky, sister, Beverly Wagner of Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin, nephew, Paul Wagner of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, numerous cousins, and many dear friends.