Grocery industry veteran Willard R. "Bill" Bishop Jr. passed away at the age of 80 on March 25.
Bishop, who grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, earned an MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Maine – Orono, and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. Then he entered the Army, rising to the rank of Captain, and served as assistant to General Bunker in the Pentagon’s office of the Army Materiel Command.
In 1970, Bishop moved to the Chicago area where he worked as vice president of research at the Supermarket Institute (now known as FMI – The Food Industry Association) for six years. In 1971, he and his wife purchased their first house in Barrington, Illinois, and called the community home for more than 50 years.
Bishop started Willard Bishop Consulting in 1976, where he focused on a wide variety of projects spanning grocery retail formats, pricing, and activity-based costing. He and his wife operated WBC for 37 years and employed over 150 people during that time. They sold the business in 2008 and Bishop continued as chairman until 2011.
Then he and his son Steve co-founded Brick Meets Click, an analytics and strategic insight firm that focuses on helping the grocery industry navigate the impact of digital technology and ecommerce. Bishop served as BMC’s chief architect, and the family business grew as children David and Cindy joined the team.
Only recently did significant health challenges prevent him from being his typical hyper-productive self and forced him to retire.
Bishop truly loved his work and valued his friendships with individuals across the grocery industry.
His other notable professional accomplishments include helping to create two Coca-Cola Retailing Research Councils—one focused on grocery and the other on convenience retail; teaching Marketing Channels at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University MBA program; serving as a Board member for Raley’s Fine Foods, and The Food Institute; and in September 2020, he was inducted into PLMA’s Private Label Hall of Fame.
Bishop was always generous with his time both personally and professionally. He was happy to lend an ear and offer thoughts on how to move forward or see things from a different perspective. He also prioritized engaging with people and organizations where he saw an opportunity to make a difference, whether it be participating in many church activities, coordinating weekly neighborhood food drives for the local food pantry, or writing letters to politicians and companies about what they could do better.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Catherine, his three children, four grandchildren, two brothers, and his extended family.
In his free time, Bishop enjoyed taking family trips to destinations near and far, spending time at the lake house in New Jersey that has been in the family for three generations, tending to his vegetable garden, doting on the family dogs, perfecting his strategies for winning at the card game whist, and getting to watch his four grandchildren grow up into young adults.
A private Celebration of Life service is being planned for mid-May in Barrington.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to F.I.S.H. Food Pantry, Carpentersville.