David Bishop, university librarian emeritus at Northwestern University, died on November 28, 2023, at the age of 86.
David served as Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian at Northwestern from 1992 to his retirement in 2006. He was university librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1987 to 1992. During his 42-year career in research librarianship, he also served as director of libraries at the University of Georgia (1979–1987), assistant director for technical services at the University of Chicago Library (1975–1979), head cataloger at University of Chicago (1973–1975), and in several management positions at the University of Maryland Libraries (1967–1973). In 1991 David received the Alumni Achievement Award in Library Science from The Catholic University of America and in 2005 was named Academic Library Staff Member of the Year by the North Suburban Library System.
In the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), David served on the ARL Board of Directors 1986–1989 and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Steering Committee 1993–1998. He was chair of the ARL Task Force on Financial Strategies in 1988 and chair of the Committee on Bibliographic Control 1987–1988 (committee member 1983–1988). He served on several other ARL committees and working groups: Membership Committee 2004–2006, Diversity Committee 2001–2003, Information Policies Committee 2001–2003, Office of Leadership and Management Services (OLMS) Advisory Group 2001–2003, Research Library Leadership and Management Committee 1998–2000, Working Group on Options for MARC Distribution Services Financial Strategies 1989–1990, and Task Force on Bibliographic Control 1981–1982.
David earned degrees in music education and string bass performance from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He then played in the US Air Force Orchestra while earning his library science degree from The Catholic University of America.
Family and friends will gather at a later date to celebrate David’s life. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Chicago Botanic Garden or to the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America (KMFA).
To learn more about David’s life and career, see his obituary and his Northwestern retirement profile.
