Friday, January 8, 2021
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My humble Tribute to Dan Cofer Bishop, a great man.
When my wife and I moved to Chloride in early 1992 we were fortunate to have Dan Bishop as our neighbor across the road.
Over the years it developed into a very rich friendship where all others paled in comparison.
My wife dreamed of having horses and we adopted two from the BLM Mustang program. Having moved from Southern California our horse sense was pretty thin. Dan gave freely of his advice and hands-on instruction. As time went on my wife became very happy and confident with her newly tamed friends.
Dan fascinated me because of his extensive knowledge of, what seemed to me, everything. His stories of his early life, the countryside, and local history kept me wanting more. I swear we both became decades younger as he recounted his experiences over a cup of coffee as I sat nearby, like a kid, listening and learning.
When my wife and I became involved in the operations of the local fire department Dan helped us with this challenge. Rough experiences with public meetings were smoothed out with merely his presence. His advice was sought out by us, he never imposed it on us. A curious and wonderful aspect of his personality was that he never disparaged anyone either publicly or privately. He’d just advise us to keep our distance or be cautious around certain more unsavory characters in town. He advised us the best ways to deal with the public.
Owning a home was a new experience for my wife and I. Dan advised us, he helped us with work, and he spared us a lot of grief when we would get hair-brained ideas about how to “improve” our property. One experience stands out clearly to me. Dan taught me how to water witching. Being a skeptical man I was humbled and yet excited to see how this worked. Here was another debt of gratitude that I owed Dan.
A number of years later my young wife passed away suddenly. This caused me great grief and things made no sense anymore. Dan helped me at the funeral and with dealing with life later. I know that I acted in many foolish ways or behaved without thinking about consequences. Dan pulled me into the world of reality and grounded me.
In all, Dan was always helping us with no fanfare but with a solid confidence which did not make us feel small. He was very generous with his gifts that meant a lot to him but were freely given to us. Dan was a straight shooter who didn’t take any bull from anyone, but never mean or angry. When I got a bit uppity sometimes, he just calmed me down quick. He is the tallest man who ever walked this side of the West. Whenever I think of NW Arizona I will always remember Dan. It was my great honor to consider him my friend and father figure.
Steve Thoemmes
