Shiela Bishop Irwin

In Loving Memory of Shiela Bishop Irwin

Our beloved mother, Shiela Marie Bishop Irwin, passed away November 24, 2025. Born in 1941 in Pensacola, Florida, she was the first and only daughter of Lewis Sherman Bishop of De Kalb Junction, New York, and Alice Marie Pierce of Pensacola, Florida. She grew up in Pensacola, raised by her maternal grandparents, Herbert and Della Marie Pierce, and attended Pensacola High School, graduating in 1959. She later attended George Washington University in Washington DC, completing a BA in Economics in 1967.

After university she worked for the US Department of Commerce. It was while working at Commerce that she met and fell in love with George D. Irwin, of the US Department of Agriculture, who was working on a joint project with her department head. In June 1968, George and Shiela married in Washington, D.C. In 1969 and 1972 her three sons, George Bruce, Keith Andrew, and Scott Charles were born in West Lafayette, Indiana, where George was working as a Research Program Leader (USDA) and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue. After West Lafayette followed Raleigh, North Carolina, and then Fairfax, Virginia, where they spent many happy years.

Shiela was a kind, loving, and generous mother, a den mother for several years with the Cub Scouts, and a Sunday-school teacher. She loved reading and history, baking, music & art, swimming, and summertime at the Outer Banks with family. For several years she was the Director of Christian Education at Providence Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, after which she pursued a master’s degree in Adult Education at Marymount University. After earning her degree, she worked for several years at the new America Online, and later at the Mitre Corporation. Soon after, she and George retired and spent some time in Normal, IL and then Middletown, DE.

During these years Shiela pursued her passion for writing and family history, researching, writing, and publishing Escape from Hell, an AVG Flying Tiger’s Journey. The book was co-written across multiple decades by Shiela Marie Bishop and her father Lewis Sherman Bishop, containing an autobiographical memoire, written by her father, describing his experiences as a member of the AVG and as a prisoner of war from 1942-45. This important and personal endeavor combined her love of writing, history, and education. It also connected her with a generation of veterans that knew her father and shared stories about him. Shiela wrote a surrounding historical text contextualizing and framing her father’s memoire. George Irwin also participated in the project, as editor, fact-checker, and provider of moral support and encouragement.

In more recent years Shiela and George lived in her hometown of Pensacola, FL, where she enjoyed reconnecting with old hangouts, friends, and family.

Shiela is survived by her sons, George Bruce, Keith Andrew, and Scott Charles Irwin.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Shiela Bishop Irwin, please visit our floral store.