Barry Bishop Biography

Barry Bishop was an American mountaineer and photographer who was a part of the first American team to summit Mount Everest, on May 22, 1963. He spent most of his career with the National Geographic Society and was also a renowned scientist and scholar. Adventurous and full of energy from a young age, he joined the Colorado Mountaineering Club when he was just nine or ten years old. He quickly learned mountaineering skills from the experienced mountaineers in the club and was guiding expeditions in the Rockies and Tetons by age 12. His love of the mountains led him to study geology in college and he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in geology in 1954 and proceeded to earn a masters in geography from Northwestern University in 1957. He continued his mountaineering adventures throughout his college years and studied shear moraines on the Greenland Icecap. After a stint in the Air Force where he monitored international scientific programs in polar research, he was hired by the National Geographic Society as Picture Editor for ‘National Geographic’; he would stay with the organization until his retirement in 1994. He gained much international attention in 1963 when he became a member of the first American team to reach the summit of Mount Everest.