Joseph Layton Bishop

Dr. Joseph Layton Bishop Jr's career path led him from farmer to teaching as a Universtiy professor into administrative positions. He cut his first administrative teeth as the drector of the Haitian-American Institute in Port-au Prince, Haiti. He later accepted a position as director of instruction at Mt. San Jacinto College in Hemet California. Following that, he accepted a position as academic vice president of the newly created Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Later he became the executive director of a consortium of progressive colleges called GT-70, based in Miami, Florida. Subsequently, he was offered the post of president of Weber State College in Ogden, UT. Near the end of his administration at Weber State, he received a call from the Church to be the president of the Buenos Aires North Mission in Argentina, the same country he had served in as a young man. After his mission, the Church again called him to serve, this time as president of the Missionary Training Center in Provo. After his three-year assignment there, he accepted a position as associate professor at Brigham Young University. He later served two additional missions for the Church, one as the area welfare agent for Central America and one acting president of the Samoa Apia Mission. He is married to Rena M. Davis, a retired nurse, and between the two of them, they have ten children, more grandchildren than they ever could have wished for,and a few great-grandchildren. Both now retired.