Makers
for makers.

The lineage

Six generations.
One constructor.

These seven people, oldest first. None of them is the constructor. Each of them died or will die. The constructor is the knowledge of how to build things that keep working after you stop. It passed through all of them. It is not any of them.

Name, years, and one-line role on each card. Open the card for the longer note — hover, focus, or tap.

1. Generation I Joseph Langle 1815–1880s Came from Baden-Baden to Michigan. Langle became Langley. Full note

   From Baden-Baden, Germany. Came to Michigan in the mid-1800s. The name was Langle — it became Langley in America. Everything that followed traces to this crossing.

2. Generation II Sebastian B. Langley 1865–1942 Carpenter. Built houses in Maybee, then Jackson. Full note

   Carpenter. Born in Maybee, Michigan. Built the houses the people of the industrial revolution lived in, then settled in Jackson. Buried at Saint John's Catholic Cemetery, Jackson. Two of his hand tools still exist.

3. Generation III William Bishop 1890s–1950s Army Air Corps mechanic. Later auto-plant manager. Full note

   Army Air Corps mechanic, First World War. Then General Manager at one of Jackson's auto makers — until the Depression closed the factory. Finished his working life at the post office, on a veterans benefit. Sebastian's daughter Margaret married him. That is how the Langley craft line and the Bishop line became one.

4. Generation IV Robert William Bishop 1934–2025 President of GM's global service-tool supplier. Full note

   Worked his way up to president of the global service-tool supplier for General Motors — the operation that made tools for the people who built vehicles and refrigeration systems. Went to Japan before anyone called it Lean: "You can eat off the floor in their plants." Brought it back. Bob worked the factory floor during college summers. The factory was several blocks from the house.

5. Generation V Bob Bishop 1955–Now Builds surgical tools, imaging systems, and team methods. Full note

   Tools for surgery. Instruments, imaging systems, and the methods that keep a complex operation from becoming chaos. Not as a surgeon — as the person who builds what surgeons use. Now writing the architecture for what comes after, before it disappears.

6. Generation VI Matt Bishop 1991–Now OR electrophysiologist. Co-founder, LiquidETH Co. Full note

   Born in an ice storm, March 1991, emergency C-section, Beaumont Royal Oak Hospital. Managed a neurosurgical ambulatory surgery center in Orlando. Boston during Covid: electrophysiologist in the operating room, monitoring the nervous system in real time while surgeons operated on the brain and spine. Mined Ethereum the year it launched — bought his truck on the proceeds. Climbing instructor, Planet Rock, Ann Arbor. Co-founder, LiquidETH Co. He introduced his father to the blockchain.

7. Generation VI Michael Bishop 1993–Now Real-estate agent. Compass, Honolulu. Full note

   Born 1993. Started in Chicago real estate in 2014 — KoenigRubloff, then founded Michael Bishop Real Estate LLC, working Lincoln Park, Logan Square, the north side. Then moved to Hawaii. Served as Broker in Charge at Seaside Realty on the North Shore. Now Senior Agent at Compass, Honolulu — 5.0 Zillow rating, $1M average sale price. michaelbishoprealtor.com