A legacy of love etched in glass: Couple's local masterpieces live on at Doak, Dodd

A stained-glass window is designed with precision. Each piece has to fit together, just like a puzzle.

Much like the glass masterpieces they spent their lives creating, Bob and Jo Ann Bischoff were a perfect fit. After being the essential piece to each other’s puzzle for more than 50 years, the couple left this world in the only way that made sense — together.

“I don't know how or why, but it's so fitting,” said Danny Pietrodangelo, a life-long friend of the couple. “They were just so integrated in each other's lives that whatever it was, I could not imagine one living without the other.”

On Aug. 3, a family member found the 73-year-olds deceased in their home when he went to check in after not hearing from them for a while. The family doesn’t know the cause of death but said in a social media post dying together is "the only way they would have wanted to."

"They were fire and water, but they worked together somehow," Ivy Alison, the couple's only child, said. "My dad would blaze a new path with his passions and drives. And my mom would follow along like a river. Cool, calm, and fearless."

A legacy in stained glass wonderworks

Attached at the hip, the two lovebirds used to do everything together. They were perfect counter parts, Pietrodangelo said. While Bob was a dreamer, Jo was more pragmatic and kept him rooted, he said. She was quiet; he was a chatter box.

Alison said her mother had a quiet faith.

"She believed, and he believed in her," she said. "Together they accomplished the impossible."

True to their dynamic, the Bischoffs ran a stained-glass business that could not operate without one another. Jo designed, and Bob fabricated numerous well-known stained-glass windows in Tallahassee — art that still stands in places like Dodd Hall and Doak Campbell Stadium at Florida State University.

In 1997, they created the striking 22 x 10 foot multi-paneled window in Dodd celebrating the university's classic architecture with 10,000 pieces of glass.

In 2004, they designed and joined other artists to create the giant leaded glass window overlooking the field at Doak Campbell stadium. The 30 x 20-foot window is a tribute to legendary football coach Bobby Bowden and was made with 30,000 pieces of colored glass. It is hailed as one of the five largest, secular stained glass windows in the country.

From gallery owners to Master Craftsman

Their love story, though, began in a more modest setting. The Bischoffs first met as freshmen in the fall of 1969 at FSU’s staple café the Sweet Shop.

“We were walking into the Sweet Shop, and there was this group of three or four girls,” Pietrodangelo said. “He said ‘Why don’t you go talk to them?’ and I said, ‘I don’t want to talk to them.’ And then he said, ‘Well yeah, but you can for me. I like the one on the left.’”

With the help of Bob’s wingman, it wasn’t long before they were madly in love. They married a year later.

Knowing Bob since their high school days in Miami and watching his love for Jo unfold, Pietroangelo wrote a column in the Tallahassee Democrat in 2019 detailing the Bischoff's epic love story and life journey.

After graduating from FSU, the couple never left Tallahassee. The two chose to build a life and start their careers in town. Bob was always very creative and inventive, Pietrodangelo said, and after a few failed attempts at being a photographer, started mastering the craft of stained-glass creations.

The three friends opened an art studio in 1976 called Gallery 471. Upstairs was a gallery displaying local artists' works, and downstairs served as Bob's personal workshop, Pietrodangelo said.

“It was small and unique – nothing like it in Tallahassee. A collective of really talented resident artists, a marketplace for student art like hand blown glass and pottery and good exhibitions,” Bob said in Pietrodangelo's 2019 column.

Pietrodangelo said stained-glass is a tedious and time-consuming art, but Bob progressively got better, advancing from simple projects like ornaments and lamps to the famous stained-glass windows at FSU and Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

Over the years, the pair learned many financial lessons the hard way, Pietrodangelo said. There is a gap between artists and the business side of art, and after experiencing it firsthand, Bob wanted to bridge the two sides together.

In 1999, he launched the Master Craftsman program at FSU with then-president Sandy D’Alemberte’s help. It was designed to teach students how to apply their skills to create, but then more importantly how to market their work.

“Bob and Joe were extraordinary artists,” said David Lowe, a friend and fellow artist. “Bob's job at FSU was highly unique, and I believe that he sent many students in the correct direction.”

'They loved to dream, plan and wonder'

They were an extraordinary couple in both their work and personal lives, Lowe said. Even in some of their toughest days, they remained two of the kindest people he had ever met, never hesitating to lend someone a helping hand.

"They loved to dream, plan, and wonder about what they'd leave behind one day in a tangible sense," Alison said. "Not only did they leave behind the most extraordinary artwork, but they left behind the dream that is now the Master Craftsman program."

Jo was diagnosed in her 30s with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune illness that attacks the brain and spinal cord. As the disease progressively worsened, she worked from her bed for many years, Pietrodangelo said.

Still, she was always smiling and kept a positive attitude, Lowe said.

Determined to keep them together and near their five grandchildren, Bob began to build a home specific to her needs, Pietrodangelo said.

“It’s not a matter of if but when," Bob said in Pietrodangelo's column. "The prospect of her living in a nursing home – I’m not going to let that happen. This house can prevent that."

But one thing led to another, and the plans for a new house fell through, Alison said. Instead, he just made modifications to their current home including voice automated lights and blinds, wheelchair-accessible spaces and powerlifts to help her in and out of bed.

While it's hard to imagine their cheerful faces are gone, they had a long, full life, Pietrodangelo said.

Even though people may not know their names, their life and legacy will shine every time a ray of light passes through the windows they created — the heart of a timeless love story.

"We should all be so lucky to leave behind the kind of legacy they did," Alison said.

Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on Twitter @elenabarreraaa.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Bob, Jo Ann Bischoff leave legacy of stained glass in FSU at Dodd, Doad