Ohio Wesleyan Professor Interviewed for History Channel’s ‘America’s Book Of Secrets’
Jim Underwood
DELAWARE, OHIO – In January 1950, Cadet Richard Cox vanished from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. Sixty-two years later, the Mansfield, Ohio, man’s disappearance remains unsolved.
Cox’s story, including an interview with Ohio Wesleyan University part-time journalism professor Jim Underwood, is scheduled to be featured March 17 on the History Channel series “America’s Book of Secrets.” The episode, examining West Point, will air at 10 p.m. March 17 on the H2 channel.
As a reporter, Underwood wrote a series of articles about Cox in 1982, based on more than 4,000 pages of FBI, CIA, military, and other government files obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act. In 2010, Life Magazine dubbed the Cox case one of the 50 “greatest unsolved mysteries of all time.”
Underwood said the Cox case continues to intrigue him. “Richard Cox remains the only West Point cadet to disappear from the military academy and, like missing aviator Amelia Earhart, join the ranks of America’s permanently vanished.”
Underwood, who has taught journalism at Ohio Wesleyan since 1993, won more than two dozen journalism prizes and awards during a reporting career that spanned more than two decades. His national awards include the Newspaper Guild’s 1980 Heywood Broun Award. In addition, his reporting earned him two public service awards from the NAACP and a lifetime achievement award from Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists. In 1987, he was inducted into the Bowling Green State University Journalism Hall of Fame.
About “America’s Book of Secrets”
According to producers, this series “lifts the veil of mystery, giving you unparalleled access to historical narratives and insider information previously hidden from the public. Through in-depth research and exclusive channels, this series delves into a variety of familiar but enigmatic American institutions, from the FBI and the Pentagon to Fort Knox and Area 51. Go beyond the locked doors and security checkpoints of government agencies, famous landmarks and stealthy societies to glimpse the hidden worlds you were never intended to see.”
About Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.