Necrology

James Horton Underwood '41

Mar. 30, 1919-Feb. 13, 2008

James Horton Underwood '41, a Presbyterian minister and member of a family long associated with missionary education in Korea, was born in Seoul on March 30, 1919. His parents were Horace H., president of Chosun Christian College (predecessor of today's Yonsei University), and Ethel Van Wagoner Underwood. He was a grandson of Horace G Underwood (1859-1916), who arrived in the "Hermit Kingdom" in 1885 as a pioneering Protestant missionary and later founded and served as first president of Chosun Christian College. James Underwood and his twin brother John attended Seoul Foreign School and followed their older brother, Horace G. '39, to Hamilton in 1937.

The twins joined Horace's fraternity, Delta Upsilon, played in the College Band, and participated in debate, winning the Kirkland Prize Oration. Both also became outstanding track stars, "plucky little two-milers," according to The Hamiltonian, who virtually tied each other for first in almost all the races they ran. In addition, James served as manager of the football team. Following their graduation in 1941, the Underwood brothers began studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Both were ordained as Presbyterian ministers in 1944, along with (belatedly) their father.

After receiving his Th.B. degree that year from Princeton, James Underwood entered the U.S. Navy as a chaplain, following for the first time a separate path from that of his twin. (John, the older brother by a few minutes, subsequently returned to Korea as a missionary educator.) On January 26, 1945, Lt. James H. Underwood was married to Ethel D. Foster, a nurse, in Brooklyn. Following his discharge from the Navy after World War II's end in 1946, he began his civilian ministry as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Hancock, NY, on the Pennsylvania border.

James Underwood, who also directed youth camps and chartered and served the Presbyterian church in Cadosia, NY, as well as a country chapel in Lordville, remained at Hancock until 1958, when he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Oakfield, NY, near Batavia. There he led a successful effort to plan, finance, and construct the church's community service building and earned the informal title of "community chaplain." He also held various Presbytery offices, including stated clerk, moderator, and commissioner to the General Assembly.

Apart from his regular pastoral duties, James Underwood composed hymns and wrote and directed numerous special services, pageants, and chancel dramas, all especially designed to bring young people into the mainstream of church life. After his retirement in 1984, he took up residence in a house by the sea in Cape Elizabeth, ME. In Maine he was instrumental in founding the Mid-Coast Presbyterian Church in Topsham, the first new Presbyterian church to be chartered in the state in more than 200 years, and also gave supportive guidance to the founding of a second, St. Andrews Presbyterian, in Kennebunk.

The Rev. James H. Underwood was still residing in Maine when he died on February 13, 2008. He will be remembered by family and friends for his ready wit, warmth, and caring, and for his sharing of love "with incredible generosity." Predeceased by his wife in 1999, he is survived by a son, John F. Underwood; two daughters, Gail Parker and Laurel Brundage; eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; a sister, Grace Harkness, and a brother, Richard F. Underwood '51. Predeceasing him were his older brother, Horace G. (father of Horace H. '64 and William D. '75) in 2004, and his twin brother John, in 1994. The family's tradition of service to God is being continued by James' children John and Laurel, both ministers, and Gail, an educator and church musician.

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