Norfolk’s 1st Black Commonwealth’s Attorney Passes After Long Illness

By Leonard E. Colvin 
Chief Reporter Emeritus 
New Journal and Guide 

Greg Underwood, 68, Norfolk’s first African-American Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA), died February 10 after a long battle with cancer.

Word of his passing was initially posted on the Facebook page of current Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA) Ramin Fatehi, who replaced Underwood in 2021.

Underwood was elected in 2009.

Fatehi, who was hired by Underwood  in 2012, called the late CA his “professional father.”

“A lot of folks did not know Greg, and a lot of the local political class had mixed or even negative feelings about him,” Fatehi wrote in a heartfelt recollection of  Underwood for his Facebook page. “(B)ut I have said it before and will say it again: Greg was the single most underestimated person with whom I have dealt in my professional career. Greg was a talker, but he was also quite private in many ways.”

Underwood was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. After high school, he enlisted in the Air Force and served as an aircraft electrician.

Four years later, he entered Fayetteville State University and joined the Air Force ROTC. Upon graduation in 1980, he returned to the Air Force as a Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander.

He was accepted to Law School at UNC Chapel Hill.

 In 1990 he accepted a job in Norfolk as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, earning a promotion two years later to the Career Criminal Division, where he tried homicides and other violent crimes.

According to Fatehi, Underwood asked the current CA what he needed to be promoted to Deputy.

“His boss at the time told him that if he wanted to be a Deputy he should consider working in Portsmouth or Newport News,” Fatehi wrote.  “That particular piece of advice and its overtones did not sit well with Greg, and when Greg told his boss so … he came back to work to see his things in a box outside his office door.”

Underwood opened a private practice, and before running for and winning the CA position in Norfolk, he worked in the Virginia Beach CA office.

In 2012, Underwood was arrested for DUI and Fatehi recalled,  “The news coverage was savage. The political establishment in Norfolk and, frankly, a good portion of the office turned on Greg, too.”

Yet, Fatehi said what impressed him most was “he came to work every day and worked hard, as if nothing had changed. He left his personal difficulties at the door, and he did his job. Most people do not have that kind of guts.”

Underwood was reelected in 2017.

Fatehi said “toward the end of his term Greg spent less time with us and more time with his great-grandsons. He became less steady on his feet and started to have heart trouble. He preferred to keep his health problems largely private. He also spent a good deal of time shuttling between Norfolk and Fayetteville to care for his ailing mother, whom he lost just last year.”

The afternoon before he passed, Fatehi said Underwood had gone out walking.

Fatehi wrote, “Greg loved a good smoke. He loved a good drink. He loved a good war story. He loved a good walk … a good time. But more than that, he loved his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and, of course, his wife Gracie. He loved justice. And he loved his God, and I know that he has placed himself once again in His hands.”