Mr. Steve Bishop

A 1975 graduate of Union City Area High School and 1980 graduate of Penn State University, Bishop spent the first 15 years of his career as a newspaper reporter, columnist and editor in Union City, Ridgway, Jamestown, N.Y. and Corry, before being hired in 1996 as executive director of the Corry Higher Education Council, an adult-education nonprofit organization.

Bishop served on the board and as board president of Corry Area Hospice, and in 1999 he established Impact Corry, a nonprofit community development organization. He served as Impact Corry’s board president for several years, and helped coordinate the annual Winterfest event in Corry as an Impact Corry fundraiser. Impact Corry was later used as the model for the creation, by others, of nonprofit Union City Pride.

During his 22 years at the Corry Higher Education Council, Bishop helped create and then administered the Corry Regional Leadership program. He earned a Masters of Organizational Leadership degree from Mercyhurst University, and taught business management for a time as an adjunct instructor for Mercyhurst in Corry.

Bishop established the 21st Century Girls program at the Corry Hi-Ed to introduce middle-school girls to nontraditional careers for women. He also facilitated the start of several adult college scholarship funds to serve the Corry and Union City areas, and administered the Kelly Thomas Memorial Golf Outing at Union City Country Club for several years that established an adult scholarship in the late Union City resident’s name.

Bishop twice served as chairman of Corry’s United Fund drive, and on four occasions as master of ceremonies of Corry’s Memorial Day ceremonies. He oversaw efforts to improve downtown Corry with trees, interpretive panels and other streetscaping initiatives, and was awarded five state historic markers for Corry by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

Bishop initiated the effort that led to Corry’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods being named to the National Register of Historic Places, and initiated the purchase of an historic parcel of downtown Corry railroad property for community repurposing.

Bishop culminated his career by working with the Union City Community Foundation on a variety of community development initiatives. He lives in Pittsfield, Warren County, with his wife Jetta.