By Chad Budreau, AMA Executive Director | chadb@modelaircraft.org
ON JUNE 22, I received a text from Joyce Hager that Bob Underwood had passed away. Bob served as the AMA executive director, technical director, was a contest director, the Safety Committee chair, founder of the National Association of Scale Aeromodelers (NASA), launched AMA educational programs, and successfully championed in Washington, D.C., for radio frequencies and the Large Model Airplane program. Bob’s work will continue to have a positive impact on the hobby for generations to come.
As AMA’s current executive director, I leaned on Bob for guidance and insight. No matter the question, Bob was knowledgeable and eager to help.
A couple of years ago, I invited Bob, his wife Rae, and their daughter, Cathy, to AMA Headquarters to meet the staff. While in Muncie, I asked Bob and Rae to sit in front of a camera to share their experiences and institutional knowledge. I’m grateful that they said yes. For those who knew Bob, he was a talker! We still have hours of footage to sort through, but I’m hopeful that we’ll have clips to share.
Bob was an educator by trade and spearheaded many of AMA’s educational initiatives. The following was shared with me by AMA member Gordon Schimmel, who worked closely with Bob and was also instrumental in launching many of AMA’s education programs:
“Let me tell you about Robert ‘Bob’ Underwood. I knew him a bit differently than many of his brethren in the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
“At a critical time in AMA’s history, when the future of the organization teetered on the edge of survival, Bob postponed retirement from a life in public education to help AMA survive its transition from Reston, Virginia, to the cornfields of Indiana. Headquartered in a newly constructed pole barn, the Academy had staked a claim to several hundred acres of farmland outside of Muncie, big enough for Free Flight models, as well as every other type of Special Interest Group the Academy’s membership had created. Bob’s presence added stability and continuity in times that were anything but certain for the future of the organization.
“‘One-beer Bob’ (as he liked to call himself while he shared stories at evening ‘hangar-flying’ sessions) was the passionate, dedicated, and totally committed ‘father’ of the education mission at AMA.
“In 1995, after I became chair of the newly formed Education Committee, Bob was a mentor and strong supporter of our work for many years. He was a man who understood that model aviation was more than a hobby and a sport; he knew that the ‘Academy’ in AMA’s name signaled that it was founded, in part, as an educational institution and a pathway of learning for future engineers. Bob had a long career as a teacher and administrator, and he knew that AMA could engage young people in ways unmatched by full-scale aviation.
“He was dedicated to finding ways to teach the young (and old) about the joy and excitement of creating something that could fly, transporting a figment of their imagination to the excitement of an airborne reality. The Wright brothers knew what this meant, and so did Bob.
“When he established the AMA Education Committee, he gave us the opportunity to work with others who had similar dreams of encouraging children to achieve the personal accomplishment inherent in model aviation; he did so with humility and love for everyone who shared the magic of flight.
“As the cliché goes, he will be missed, but this tribute does not go nearly far enough. He was a great and gentle man who, as an educator, believed in the future of children using model aviation flight as a medium to educate and inspire others to find their own greatness.
“All of us should try to be as good as Bob was—for AMA and for mankind.”
I agree. We should all be as good as Bob. Stay safe.