Bishop, a Smith County native, is a 1958 MSU petroleum geology graduate who in 1981 founded GeoSouthern Energy, which grew to become one of the largest, privately held producers of oil and gas in the country. GeoSouthern sold its south Texas fields to Devon Energy for $6 billion in 2013.
In 2023, Bishop and his wife pledged $100 million to MSU to back the George Bishop Family Endowed Scholarship that they established in 2018 with a $10 million commitment; the scholarship provides financial aid to students across all fields of study and gives preference to Mississippi residents.
The $100 million commitment marked the largest gift to a higher education institution in Mississippi and was among the largest contributions designated solely for scholarship support made to any university in the world, according to information from MSU
With a real time net worth of $3.2 billion as of May 14, Bishop comes in at No.1,033 on the Forbes 2024 list of the world’s 2,781 billionaires.
