Phil’s academic career ranged from the United States to Shanghai, Manila, and Panama. His first year of high school was in Manila, the last three in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Then it was two years at George Washington University. In an effort to cover all appointment bases, he spent three years in the National Guard. Failing to gain an appointment he worked the Hill — as did so many of us. At the last minute a Congressman from Texas, despairing of ever getting a graduate let alone an entrant, gave Phil the vacancy caused by a principal who failed the academic exam, a first alternate who failed the physical, and a second alternate who fell and damaged his knee shortly before 1 July.

At USMA Phil always stood in the top quarter. He played C Squad football, B Squad lacrosse, and won his intramural insignia for soccer. He also was an academic coach for all four years; math particularly intrigued him. His bio read, “Conscientious, determined, but versatile.” During his last years as a cadet, he roomed with Ed Gooney and Pete Thaler. As Phil said, the room had a Protestant, a Catholic, and a Jew . . . and all got along famously.

On graduation, Phil’s math ability pushed him toward the new antiaircraft equipment with the early forerunners of computers. It turned out to be no mistake, for he was one of the few in our class to win the Distinguished Service Cross on the battlefields of Europe. Attached to the 13th Armored Division, he had four half-tracks escorting supplies when the Germans sprang an ambush. Outnumbered 15 to 1, Phil’s unit fought so well that with 43 men they took more than 200 prisoners and completed their mission. The citation reads:

“He gallantly exposed himself to intense hostile fire. During the bitter fighting . . . he carried a wounded man to safety, drove two trucks to cover and fearlessly ran across a field swept by enemy fire to contact friendly ranks coming to (his) aid.”

After several AA assignments after the war, Phil became the “mayor” of the Berchtesgarden Recreation Area, complete with some of Hitler’s furniture in his office. With Phil’s DSC and his time in Europe, Jessie qualified for the April 1946 trip of the Thomas Barry, the first boatload of wives to Germany. It was December of 1947 before they returned home to Florida, where Mary was born. A master’s degree in science at Johns Hopkins coincided with Lance’s birth in DC. A decade later, Todd was born in California.

Increasingly, the Bischoff assignments had nuclear connotations — Sandia, Eniwetok, and Nevada. For his work in program evaluations at JTF II, he was awarded the JSCM. On the staff of CINCPAC during the Vietnam War, he traveled often to that country on IG missions. Later he was chief of Nuclear Support to the Turkish Artillery and very much enjoyed his travels to the three Turkish armies and their units. In 1973, he retired with a well-deserved Legion of Merit.

Where to go in retirement was decided by lottery at a state fair in Albuquerque: a lot of land in Colorado Springs was the prize they won. So it was there that he and Jessie settled. Phil had a tremendous compassion for people, so it was natural that he become a volunteer. The Olympic Training Center became the center of his focus.

An interest in volleyball drew him as a spectator. Then he was asked to volunteer as an Olympic helper. That led to being asked to organize a booster committee, which led to a position on the Olympic Committee itself. No task was too small or too large for Phil — from doing the team’s family laundry overnight to acting as a tour guide for VIPs. He also volunteered for the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the Colorado Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Phil Bischoff died suddenly and alone at his home, to be found later by Jessie. He is survived by Jessie, Mary, Lance, and Todd, four grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren. His was truly a life of service but also a life of tremendous interest in others.

Lance wrote,

“His love for interesting places and people permeated his life. He brought home trinkets, stories, recipes, and outlooks on life available only from an observant world traveler . . . His faith, his philosophy of life, and his experiences gave to us a precious view of the gifts of life and his gifts to us.”

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

— Classmates and family