Featured obituary: Mr. Julius Bishop

ATHENS, Ga. --- Julius Bishop, Athens' longest-serving mayor, died at his home Monday after a long illness. He was 93.

Mr. Bishop was mayor from 1964 until 1976, the longest consecutive tenure in Athens history.

"He left his thumbprint on the old city of Athens and our community probably like no mayor ever has," former Athens-Clarke Mayor Doc Eldridge said.

Mr. Bishop served during a tumultuous time in Athens history, when schools and other public facilities integrated, and the city experienced then-unprecedented growth and prosperity. Before city-county unification in 1991, the mayor held almost unlimited powers.

Mr. Bishop was known as an iron-fisted leader who enjoyed widespread respect and support because he was honest, friendly and gave constituents his personal attention, no matter how small the issue.

"He is a wonderful conversationalist who has a super sense of humor, and it's obvious he has the confident air of one who is accustomed to being in charge," Banner-Herald reporter M.A. Barnes wrote in a 2000 profile.

The city was nearly bankrupt when he took office, but Mr. Bishop quickly righted the ship.

"On my first day, the secretary called and said the city treasurer wanted to talk to me," Mr. Bishop said during his last public appearance, at the Athens Rotary Club in September. "I'd found a cigar in my desk, so for a laugh I stuck that in my mouth and put my feet up on my desk. When the treasurer came into my office, he said, 'You might want to take that cigar out of your mouth' and told me that we didn't have enough money to get through the week. He said we could borrow $50,000 on my signature without council approval. We did that, and I swore it would never happen again."

It didn't.

"He was a very good mayor, because he believed in protecting the assets and finances of the city," former city clerk and treasurer Johnny Fowler said.

Not only did Mr. Bishop improve the government's finances, but he also successfully applied for an estimated $30 million in federal urban renewal grants that reshaped the entire city.

Under the Model Cities program and other revitalization initiatives, Mr. Bishop razed dilapidated housing along Baxter Street and College Avenue to make way for new University of Georgia dormitories and a subsidized housing project now known as Bethel Midtown Village. The grants also paid to pave roads in poor parts of town.

The forward-thinking Mr. Bishop also modernized the city police and fire departments, installed a computerized record-keeping system and pushed unification more than 20 years before voters finally approved it.