Remembered for his death at the hands of Chinese communists, this 20th-century Baptist missionary and World War II-era United States Office of Strategic Services intelligence officer was the posthumous recipient of a Distinguished Service Medal.
He graduated in 1939 from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and went on to train as a missionary at Texas' Fundamental Baptist Bible Institute. He arrived in China in 1940.
His death resulted in the establishment of a right-wing, anti-communist organization called the John Birch Society.
Born in the Indian state of Uttarakhand to American Baptist missionary parents, he grew up primarily in New Jersey and Georgia, U.S.A.
After military pilot James "Jimmy" Doolittle crashed his plane in China during World War II, Birch ushered him to safety.
