ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996               TAG: 9601260086
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER 

NS NAMES NEW CHIEF OF LAWYERS JOHN S. SHANNON TO RETIRE MARCH 1

John S. Shannon, who attended Salem's Andrew Lewis High School and Roanoke College, will retire March 1 as executive vice president in charge of Norfolk Southern Corp.'s legal department. NS Chairman David Goode announced Thursday that James C. Bishop Jr. will succeed Shannon.

Bishop worked as a lawyer for Norfolk and Western Railway before the Roanoke-based NW merged with Southern Railway in 1982 to form Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern. Shannon was named to his current post at that time.

Shannon, 64, joined Norfolk and Western's legal department in 1956, only a year after his graduation from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was editor of the Virginia Law Review. Among his many civic activities, Shannon served on the boards of North Cross School, Roanoke College and the Legal Aid Society of Roanoke Valley before leaving Roanoke when NS moved to new headquarters in Norfolk.

"Jack Shannon has devoted his career at Norfolk Southern to developing and managing one of the best corporate law divisions in the nation," Goode said. "His counsel will be missed, but his influence will long be felt as Jim Bishop assumes leadership."

Bishop, 59, a Lexington, Ky. native, joined the railroad's law department in 1968 after his graduation from the UVa law school. Before law school, he had graduated from West Point and been a pilot with the Strategic Air Command for seven years.

Bishop became vice president for law in 1989. He serves on the boards of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Private Adjudication Center Inc. at Duke University.

LENGTH: Short :   39 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  (headshots) Shannon, Bishop.