Friendship Retirement Community Board Member Dr. NL Bishop Honored at 2024 Perry F. Kendig Awards Ceremony
ROANOKE, VA – Friendship Retirement Community is excited to share that Board Member Dr. Nathaniel L. (NL) Bishop is a recipient of this year’s Perry F. Kendig Awards. The awards, which are cosponsored by Hollins University and Roanoke College, celebrate the people and organizations that support excellence in the arts in the greater Roanoke Valley region.
Mary Dana Hinton, president of Hollins University, and Roanoke College President Frank Shushok, Jr. honored the 2024 winners during a ceremony held at Hollins’ Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center on October 1. “This event is special for many reasons,” said Hinton. “It is an opportunity for Hollins and Roanoke to affirm the arts, our patrons, and leadership for the arts. Hollins and Roanoke were both founded in 1842 and have served the region for 180 years. This is a tangible way for us to cooperate and express our joint values of the importance of the arts and community.”
Shushok added, “It is a privilege for Roanoke College to link arms once again with our friends at Hollins University to present the Kendig Awards in honor of Roanoke’s seventh president, Dr. Perry F. Kendig. These awards shine a light on the tremendous creative talents and cultural programs and resources throughout our region.”
Bishop is the recipient of this year’s Individual or Business Arts Supporter Award. Hinton described him as “a distinguished and dynamic leader who elevates the arts and cultural initiatives across the Roanoke Valley as well as education and health care.”
Bishop, who retired this summer as the senior associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and student vitality at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, led the creation of the Henrietta Lacks statue in downtown Roanoke to commemorate the African American woman from Roanoke whose cancer cells are the source of the first immortalized human cell line in medical research. He has successfully advocated for historic designation of sites significant to Roanoke’s Black community and organized film screenings to stimulate cross-cultural conversation and understanding. Bishop has also served as a leader on the boards of Mill Mountain Theatre and the Taubman Museum of Art.
“Being a trailblazer has become Dr. Bishop’s gift to our community,” said Hinton. This year marks the 39th anniversary of the Kendig Awards and the 12th year that Hollins and Roanoke College have partnered to present them. The awards highlight the vital and important role that the arts play in the economic development, education, and cultural identity of Virginia’s Blue Ridge.
About Friendship
Friendship Retirement Community is a nonprofit senior living community that offers a variety of housing and on-site healthcare services to serve a wide range of residents, including those with limited financial means. With four campuses, the earliest dating back to 1919, Friendship has grown to offer the full continuum of care—independent living, assisted living, home care, outpatient therapy, inpatient rehab, long-term care and Alzheimer’s and memory care. In a time when 4-in-5 residential care facilities are run by for-profit companies, Friendship, as a non-profit, continues to strive to invest profits back into our communities and to focus on being a good neighbor. Visit friendship.us for more. ###