Richard Underwood

His Mission to Beautify the World

By Mary Minor Davis

Hundreds gathered this past October to celebrate the life of Tucson businessman Richard K. Underwood, co-founder and president of AAA Landscaping. Services were held at Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene, where Underwood and his wife, Patricia, were devoted parishioners. He died on Oct. 3 at the age of 75.

Born to Amos Harvey Underwood and Wanda Richards Underwood, and raised with four brothers and a sister in Holbrook, Ariz., Underwood was attracted to ranch life, football, wrestling, rodeo and 4-H in high school. His oldest brother, Bob, co-founder of AAA Landscaping, said of him, “He learned that when you got bucked off, you got right back on and never to give up.”

Underwood and his brother started AAA Landscaping in 1975 with the help of $1,000 from their grandparents and a loaned truck from an uncle. Over the next 45 years, AAA Landscaping grew into a statewide success, fulfilling its mission to “beautify the world,” showcasing some of Arizona’s most memorable housing and commercial projects and contributing to the beautification of many city and county areas to provide a positive visual impact for visitors to the region.

One of his treasured projects is the Underwood Garden at the University of Arizona College of Architecture, an oasis of rest and comfort from the daily challenges of life and learning, but also a highly engineered space that is a landscaped laboratory. Behind the scenes of this horticulture wonder are systems that work together to recycle thousands of gallons of water annually through runoff and condensation gathering. Visitors enjoy the riparian horticulture and amphibian life that abound in the space.

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry spoke of Underwood’s innovative approach to his work. AAA Landscaping has worked on county projects for more than 30 years.

“He could transform grass into the beautiful Sonoran Desert he so loved,” Huckelberry said. Underwood participated in drafting the county’s native plant ordinances, and “so many public spaces enjoyed by residents and visitors were planted by Richard,” Huckelberry said.

Underwood took an active role in his community, serving on the boards of the Tucson and Marana chambers of commerce, founding the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce, and as a member of Metropolitan Pima Alliance and Southern Arizona Leadership Council. He was a life director of the Southern Ari-

zona Home Builders Association and founder and chair of the board of Canyon Community Bank, taking it from “one of the least capitalized community banks in Arizona to the highest capitalized,” said Tim Prouty, the bank’s current board chairman.

Underwood is most remembered for his grace, wit and charm. Raised to believe that he should always treat others as he’d like to be treated, his friends and family recall his quick smile, cowboy phrases, deep faith and family, and making everyone he met feel like they were special.

“I feel like I know every one of you in this room,” said his son, Amos, at his service. “There wasn’t a person, project or plant that he didn’t get excited about. He’s talked about all of you.”

“He had tremendous strength in his stature and in his voice, but he always had a soft tone when talking to others,” said his wife of two years, Patricia Possert Underwood. “There was just such a grace about him.”

She and Underwood met for the first time in 2005 through work and then their paths crossed again in 2011. In 2017, after both had gone through personal changes in their lives and found themselves single, he reached out to Patricia on Facebook. Then living in New York, she returned to Tucson to visit family and went on her first date with him. “When I first met him, I thought he was the most gorgeous person God had created,” she recalled. They dated long-distance for a year and a half and then married in 2019.

“I can’t believe the way that the universe conspires with you,” she said after his memorial service. “I recognized in him a soulmate and he did, too. We told each other every day how much we loved each other. The Lord put us together for a short time and it was good for both of us. Richard used to say, ‘Keep short accounts, because you never know when the last time is you’ll see that person.’ And it’s true.”

Underwood was working on two final legacy projects for the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene, and the family asks for public support of the OVCN Columbarium, a garden setting for respectful, public access of funerary urns, and the OVCN Sports Complex, a partnership with FCA Sports to provide sports ministry programming.