Raymond L. Hodge, a retired Fox School District educator, died April 9, 2012, at St. Anthony’s Medical Center in St. Louis County, after a long illness.
He was 81 and lived in Arnold.
Mr. Hodge had been a principal at Meramec Heights Elementary School for 30 years and before that he taught and coached at Fox High School.
The Fox district’s Hodge Elementary School is named after him and his first wife, the late Nancy J. (Hadley) Hodge, who was a retired Fox Elementary School teacher. She died in 2001 at age 70.
The two were the Arnold Days Parade grand marshals in 1999.
Mr. Hodge was a longtime member of the New Hope United Methodist Church in Arnold and the Arnold Rotary Club.
He helped form the Arnold American Legion baseball program and was inducted into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Mr. Hodge also was an Army veteran, having served in Japan during the end of the Korean War.
He coached an Army basketball team during that stint, said his longtime friend Richard Simpson, another retired Fox district administrator.
Mr. Hodge is survived by his second wife, Dorothy “Dottie” (Thurman) Crandall Hodge of Arnold; two sons: Richard (Nancy) Hodge of Imperial and Randolph (Shelley) Hodge of Imperial; a step-son, John (Margaret) Crandall of Ballwin; two step-daughters: Rebecca (Alan) Thompson of Liberty and N. Renee (David) Witte of Bridgeton, as well as five grandchildren and six step-grandchildren.
Visitation is from 4-8 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at Heiligtag-Lang-Fendler Funeral Home, 1081 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold. Another visitation will be from 10-11 a.m. Friday, April 13, at New Hope United Methodist Church, 3921 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold, immediately followed by the funeral service at the church.
Burial will be in Shepherd Hills Cemetery in Barnhart.
Memorials may be made to New Hope United Methodist Church.
--Kim Robertson
