Joe O'Farrell Bishop, Sr.

Joe O’Farrell Bishop, Sr., 89, of Perrin, Texas, died on Thursday, April 12, 2018, at the home of his friend, Barbara Swanson. Cremation has taken place and all services will be private. Joe was born July 5, 1928, in Deaf Smith County, the only child of Henry and Rosella Bishop. He grew up hunting and fishing along the banks of Tierra Blanco Creek with his best friend Skeeter who chronicled their adventures in a series of “Me & Joe” stories. He was an USAF veteran, University of Texas graduate, and Aerospace Engineer at General Dynamics and Lockheed-Martin. 

A life-long member of the Texas and Southwestern Cattleman’s Association, he owned and raised registered Beefmaster Cattle on ranches he owned and leased across West Texas for over 60 years. In the 1980s he developed and operated Tierra Colinas the first wild game bird hunting preserve in North Texas and designed a nationally sanctioned sporting clays coarse in Parker County. Renown as a crack shot with both shotgun and rifle, the Lifetime NRA member was an equally avid conservationist and established a flock of wild Canada Geese that still migrates annually to and from his old home ranch. An accomplished storyteller, he regaled family and friends with humorous observations and recollections that will be sorely missed. 

He was preceded in death by his parents and son, William Robert Bishop. 

Survivors: son, Joe Bishop, Jr. and his wife, Taryn; and by his five grandchildren, Whitney, Jordan, Jason, Jenifer and Jessica; and three great-grandchildren, Analyn, Aubrey, and William.