Charles Edwin Bishop, a noted educator and economist who was an alumnus of both Berea College and the University of Kentucky, has died.

Bishop, a former president of the University of Houston, died Saturday at a retirement home in Durham, N.C. He was 90.

Bishop was a native of South Carolina. He served as a flight instructor with the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, training crews to fly the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.

After the war, Bishop took a bachelor's of science degree at Berea College and then completed a master's degree at the University of Kentucky. He then moved to the University of Chicago in 1948 to work on a doctorate in economics.

Bishop joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 1950, rising through the ranks to become head of the university's Department of Economics. In following years, he became a vice president at the University of North Carolina; chancellor at the University of Maryland; president of the University of Arkansas' five-campus system; and, in 1980, president of the four-campus University of Houston System.

During his long career, Bishop served three U.S. presidents: Lyndon B. Johnson; Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter. In 1967, he led in preparing "The People Left Behind," a landmark report for Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty.

Reach Jim Warren at (859) 231-3255 or 1-800-950-6397 Ext. 3255.