On Sunday afternoon, Oxford resident Gibson Underwood became the 39th member of Troop 366 since 1988 to earn the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) program.

Surrounded by family, friends and fellow scouts, the Oxford High School senior officially became an Eagle Scout during the Court of Honor ceremony held at Oxford United Methodist Church.

“We are very proud of Gibson and his accomplishment,” said his mother Diane Underwood, Life to Eagle coordinator for Troop 366.

Underwood has been involved in scouting since his days as a first-grader at Lakeville Elementary.

To become an Eagle Scout, a young man must reach the rank of Life Scout; serve six months in a position of responsibility with his troop; earn 21 of the 136 merit badges available; and successfully complete a board of review process.

Underwood earned 37 merit badges and held the troop positions of patrol leader and webmaster.

In addition to the aforementioned requirements, a scout working toward the Eagle rank must also plan, develop and provide leadership for a service project that benefits a religious organization, school or community.

For his project, Underwood filled 120 bottles with a special blend of three essential oils designed to provide aromatherapy for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

The bottles were donated to the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Clinic at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

Underwood has been fighting Acute Lymphoblastic (or Lymphocytic) Leukemia (ALL) since his diagnosis with the disease in December 2015.

He went into remission within his first month of treatment and his chemotherapy is scheduled to end on March 31.

Because of this, Scott Kiefer, chair of the BSA Pontiac-Manito District, said Underwood faced the usual “challenges” to become an Eagle Scout “and then some.”

“You set the bar high,” Kiefer said during his speech at the ceremony.

Becoming an Eagle Scout “should be challenging,” according to Kiefer, because that’s what “separates (them) from everyone else.”

He told Underwood that “many Life Scouts don’t make it to where (he is) today” because sports, girlfriends and other commitments “got in the way.”

“Almost all of the Life Scouts that I’ve talked to that didn’t finish (the Eagle path) say that was a mistake,” Kiefer said. “If they could do it all over again, they would have made striving for (the) Eagle (rank) a higher priority.”