William W. Bishop, Jr.:MY SAYA

Bill Bishop to me was a Saya in the fullest sense of this Burmese word. Saya means a teacher who is at the same time a scholar, role model, guide, comforter, and friend. As a scholar and teacher he has imparted not only legal knowledge, but also intellectual honesty: a capacity to see and a sympathy to understand other points of view. What better role model can one give than to be a noted international legal scholar, a caring, conscientious, and affectionate person that he was? But it is in his role as a guide, comforter, and friend that he means so much to me: his attributes in this regard surpass the merely intellectual and moral level and reach spiritual heights. No doubt I have been greatly enriched by the intellectual and moral dimensions of his personality, but it is the spiritual ones that make him stand out among all the Sayas I know.