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.

After his retirement in 1984, he took up residence in a house by the sea in Cape Elizabeth, ME.

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.Īpart 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. 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. 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. (John, the older brother by a few minutes, subsequently returned to Korea as a missionary educator.) On January 26, 1945, Lt.

Navy as a chaplain, following for the first time a separate path from that of his twin. degree that year from Princeton, James Underwood entered the U.S. Both were ordained as Presbyterian ministers in 1944, along with (belatedly) their father.Īfter receiving his Th.B. Following their graduation in 1941, the Underwood brothers began studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, James served as manager of the football team. 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. The twins joined Horace's fraternity, Delta Upsilon, played in the College Band, and participated in debate, winning the Kirkland Prize Oration. James Underwood and his twin brother John attended Seoul Foreign School and followed their older brother, Horace G. 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. His parents were Horace H., president of Chosun Christian College (predecessor of today's Yonsei University), and Ethel Van Wagoner Underwood. 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.

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