WORDS & PHOTOS: Wendy Dewhurst
We see the names Bishop and Parker on buildings throughout Manatee County, but who were Edward and Lillian Bishop and Mary Parker? How did they help to shape our community? What role does the Bishop Parker Foundation have in Manatee and Sarasota County today?
The first thing I found interesting was that they didn’t go by Edward and Lillian. Everyone knew them as Ned and Patty. I would love to know THAT story!! So, in this article, we will mostly call them Ned and Patty.
The tradition of philanthropic giving can trace its beginnings to the immigration of a young couple from England in 1854. John Huntington and his wife Jane settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and there he established multiple business interests that contributed to his amassing a sizeable fortune. An inventor, entrepreneur, and astute businessman, John partnered with John D. Rockefeller to ship oil throughout the United States. One of his children, William R. Huntington, was also noted for being a successful businessman and was the father of Lillian (Patty) H. Huntington, the wife of Edward E. (Ned) Bishop. Ned came from a family that owned an important Cleveland firm, the early manufacturers of soda fountains and plumbing fixtures.
Ned and Patty married in 1914 and settled in Bradenton. They traveled extensively, often spending summers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. While in Bradenton, the Bishops were active in the civic and cultural life of the Bradenton area. They made generous and impactful gifts, anonymously when possible, to many of the organizations and institutions in the area today. The Bishops met Mary Parker, a graduate nurse, in New York in 1934 and invited her to be their nurse/companion, a role she had until the passing of Ned in 1962 and Patty in 1972.
In December 1953, the Bishops established the Edward E. and Lillian H. Bishop Foundation for charitable giving purposes. Mary Parker established the Mary E. Parker Foundation with her own assets in 1986, also for charitable giving purposes, and gave generously from her account to meet community requests each year. Mary passed away in March 2020 at 108 years old, leaving an incredible legacy of giving.
Their giving reflected their personal interests in a variety of organizations and nonprofits working to build better communities. Their love of animals was a huge part of their legacy and was one of the many things that made them so endearing and special to both Manatee and Sarasota Counties.
The Mission of the Bishop Parker Foundation is to strengthen the Manatee County Community by providing financial support to nonprofit organizations that are working to improve the lives of individuals and animals. The Foundation achieves this by prioritizing funding in health, human services, education, the arts, the environment, and animal welfare.
Due to the fact that many of their contributions were made on a person-to-person basis rather than through organizations, the value of charitable contributions given during their lifetimes by both the Bishops and Mary Parker are inestimable and have had a profound impact in both Manatee and Sarasota counties.
In addition to financial contributions, the Bishops also worked directly in the community. Patty Bishop developed an interest in nursing and, for several years, worked both day and night shifts as a volunteer operating room nurse in the Bradenton General and Manatee County hospitals.
Another of their interests was the South Florida Museum, which originally began operation in a warehouse located on Memorial Pier in downtown Bradenton. The Museum was able to remain solvent largely because of anonymous gifts from the Bishops and Mary Parker. Patty Bishop played a major role in the 1966 construction of the new Museum and the subsequent construction of the planetarium. Only after the planetarium was completed did Lillian most reluctantly allow the naming of the planetarium after her departed husband.
In July 1986, Mary Parker created the Mary E. Parker Foundation from her own assets. The Bishops left considerable income and assets to Mary without restriction. Mary felt strongly about continuing the legacy of the Bishops, and she took an active interest in ensuring the enrichment of the community through decades of financial support. Some of those institutions benefiting from her generosity include Manatee Memorial Hospital, the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, Manatee Performing Arts Center, State College of Florida, Manatee Community Foundation, Turning Points, Bishop Animal Shelter, Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc, Mote Marine, and many others in the local area.
Additionally, Mary sought out and supported many organizations around the county in the interest fields of animal welfare, supporting vulnerable people, nursing education, medical research, and the arts, to name a few.
The future of the Bishop and Parker Foundations is in the hands of four trustees and the corporate trustee, Wilmington Trust, Delaware, where the Bishop Foundation was incorporated. Wilmington Trust has managed the investments for both the Bishop and Parker Foundations for many years and takes an active interest in the granting and impact of the charitable contributions of both foundations.
“The Bishops moved here in the early 1900s, as did my mother’s family”, said Administrative Trustee Bob Black. “Mary, Ned, and Patty Bishop were among my parents’ best friends, and I knew Mary Parker my entire life. In 1976, after the Bishops had passed, Mary hired me to be her principal advisor. Mary was a lot of fun, and she had a wonderful sense of humor. She wasn’t a big fan of being in the limelight, but she loved to travel, and she loved helping people.”
Moving Forward…
In 2021, the Board of Trustees Bob Blalock, Mary E. Jarrell, Bud Parent, Barbara Jennings, and Mary Ruiz decided it was time to formalize and hire an Executive Director to handle the day-to-day needs of the Foundation. The vision of the Foundation will continue to support nonprofit organizations, the people of Manatee County and to enlarge its endeavors. Having an Executive Director will help to create an even larger impact going forward.
“Part of bringing me on board as Executive Director was to get things organized, said Adell Erozer. “We now have an office, computers, a great website, and a vision going forward. I feel like I am retiring with a great foundation in place, and I am positive that we have the right person to be leading the way.”
That vision going forward will be under the new leadership of Executive Director Wendy Deming. Wendy brings tremendous experience and knowledge, having worked in the Foundation and nonprofit world for over twenty-five years.
“I know how critical it is to shepherd these dollars that donors leave,” said Wendy. “It is a rewarding task to deploy the funds into the community the way the Bishops and Mary Parker would have wanted.”
“Going forward, I know that the board is looking to have more impact in the community through initiative work rather than only taking transactional grant applications. With initiative work, we coordinated to get the right group of people in a room together to solve a common problem. We are currently working on a food initiative that we are very excited about.”
“When this opportunity became available, I saw it as everything I had worked for in my career over the past twenty-five years as being the pinnacle of that. I know that there is work to be done to continue everything Adell has started, and I look forward to seeing this organization become all that I and the trustees know it can be.
“The Bishops moved here at a time when there was not an abundance of wealth in the area,” said Adell. “They saw a need and were willing to fund the big projects without recognition and accolades. I think if there is one thing that the Bishops would want to have as their legacy, it would be that they have encouraged everyone to create a culture of philanthropy.”
