Dr. James David "Jim" Upchurch, MD, FACEP, FAAFP, EMTP

Dr. James "Jim" Upchurch, 75, of Hardin, Montana, died Sunday, October 4, 2026, in Billings.

Jim was born April 26, 1951, in San Antonio, Texas, to Mary Bederka and James N. Upchurch, and was raised by his father and stepmother, Marie Upchurch.

Jim served in the U.S. Army Special Forces as a Green Beret medic and sergeant. While stationed in Okinawa, Japan, he met Cindy Alldever, a Michigan native who was living there with her Air Force family. They were married for 51 years.

After the Army, Jim built on the medical experience he gained in the service. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

With his medical training complete, his love of Montana's big skies and wide-open spaces brought him to the place he called home for the rest of his life. Beginning in 1985, he practiced for 39 years with the Indian Health Service at Crow Agency and the Pryor Clinic.

For 36 years he also served as medical director of Big Horn County EMS, guiding basic and advanced life support crews and critical care transport, and he provided medical direction for the Incident Medical Specialist Program of the USDA Forest Service.

His leadership shaped care far beyond the county. As a member of the Montana Board of Medical Examiners, he helped write the protocols and educational standards used by pre-hospital providers across the state. He served as regional and national faculty for the American Heart Association's ACLS program and represented Montana on the Council of State EMS Medical Directors. He taught as readily as he treated, training generations of EMTs, paramedics and physicians, and serving as an adjunct assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh's Emergency Medicine program. He was a Legacy member of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

What mattered most to Jim was never his titles. It was the people he helped. He was a doctor, neighbor, mentor and friend, and above all someone people knew they could count on. He gave his time and knowledge freely and never sought recognition. In clinics, operating rooms, ambulances, classrooms and boardrooms, he held to the same standard - the patient comes first.

Jim's legacy is not measured in years, but in the countless heartbeats he restored, comforted and saved. The world is a little less bright without him, but the light he gave lives on in the people he taught and the lives he saved.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Mary Bederka; his father, James N. Upchurch; his stepmother, Marie Upchurch; his brother, Earl Rector; and his sisters, Mary Edna Scott and Janice Vanderpool.

He is survived by his wife, Cindy; their children, David and Marlene Upchurch; his grandchildren, Katelyn, Vivien and Rayan; his brother, Carl Upchurch; his sister, Evelyn M. Upchurch; and many extended family members and friends who loved him dearly.

Services will be held Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 5 p.m. at the Big Horn County Fairgrounds in Hardin, Montana.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites memorial donations in Jim's name to the Alzheimer's Association (alz.org, 800-272-3900) or the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (alzfdn.org, 866-232-8484).

“MED-COM 1 … 10-4, over and out."