FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Clarence Bishop, a Korean War veteran with deep roots on the Eastern Shore, has been named Fairhope’s 2014 Veteran of the Year, an honor bestowed during a recent City Council meeting after community members submitted nominations throughout the year.
Bishop, a fourth-generation Baldwin County resident, former county commissioner and owner of B&B Pecans, was chosen for the award by past honorees. U.S. Army veteran and 2013 Veteran of the Year Jim Jeffries introduced Bishop at the presentation, describing the selection process as based on exemplary military service alongside continued dedication to veterans and the broader community. “Clarence Bishop, this year’s recipient, is truly a veteran still in service,” Jeffries said.
Bishop is a life member of American Legion Post 199 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5660, both based in Fairhope. He was drafted into the Army in 1953 and shipped out to Korea along with thousands of other draftees before being reassigned to the Air Force, where he served with the 366th Engineers Aviation Battalion for 13 months. He was discharged in March 1955 and continued serving in the Army Reserve until 1961. Bishop said discussing his time in Korea remains difficult because he lost close friends there. In 2000, the Korean government awarded him a medal marking the 50th anniversary of the war.
After returning home, Bishop married his high school sweetheart, Sandra Brown, and used his saved military pay to help his mother purchase five acres of land, where he started what became B&B Pecans. The operation has since grown to 100 acres and more than 2,000 pecan trees.
Bishop’s community involvement extends well beyond agriculture. He served 12 years as a Baldwin County commissioner, is a Paul Harris Fellow with the Rotary Club of Fairhope, and was a charter member and past president of the Alabama Pecan Growers Association, where he became the first person inducted into the group’s Hall of Fame. He currently serves as president of the Southeastern Pecan Growers Association and remains one of the original board members of the Thomas Hospital Foundation, which helped bring the hospital to the Eastern Shore in 1960 and which he still supports.
Accepting the award, Bishop kept his remarks brief, noting others might be more deserving of the recognition but thanking the community for the honor. With the title comes one more responsibility: Bishop is set to lead Fairhope’s Veterans Day parade through downtown at 10 a.m. on Nov. 8.