Interview with John Hodge, Class of 1938
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Description

Oral history interview with John Hodge, Class of 1938, conducted by Student Alumni Council member Verna Corbett during Homecoming 1983 at Illinois State University. Hodges reflects on the close-knit ISNU community during the Depression era, emphasizing the strong relationships between students and faculty. He recalls the modest cost of education and the small size of the student body.

Hodge discusses the impact of ISNU President Raymond Fairchild, highlighting his impressive stature and effectiveness as an administrator. He shares memories of faculty and administrators, including Clyde Hudelson, Herman Schroeder, and several other professors. The interview touches on the financial challenges students faced during the Great Depression, emphasizing the resourcefulness and determination required to pursue higher education.

The interview covers various aspects of campus life, such as extracurricular activities, significant events, and popular forms of entertainment. Hodge reminisces about school dances, athletic events, and typical modes of dress. He also describes the campus boundaries of that era and the positive relationship between the community and the student body. The interview concludes with Hodge expressing his deep affection for ISNU, citing the sense of closeness and personal fulfillment he experienced during his four years there.

Interview Date

10-29-1983

Index

  • Introduction: 00:00-00:40
  • Relationship between students and faculty; tuition costs: 00:44-02:32
  • Enrollment size: 02:32-03:05
  • President Fairchild: 03:05-04:53
  • Other administrators and faculty: 04:53-06:47
  • Comparative difficulty of completing a college education: 06:47-08:25
  • Extracurricular activities: 08:25-09:44
  • Prices for common goods: 09:44-10:49
  • Typical mode of dress: 10:49-11:46
  • Dormitories: 11:46-12:24
  • International events: 12:24-13:32
  • Entertainment on campus: 12:32-14:20
  • Bloomington-Normal; town-gown relations: 14:22-16:05
  • Hodge’s positive memories of ISNU: 16:05-17:27
  • Campus buildings and boundaries: 17:27-18:59
  • Old Main Building: 18:59-20:21
  • Organizing Senior Skip Day: 20:21-22:14

Biographical Statement

John Washburn Hodge (1915-1995) was born to James and Angie (Carpenter) Hodge, themselves both ISNU graduates, in Danvers, Illinois. In 1928 he founded the Danvers 4-H Club, an organization he remained involved in for the remainder of his life. During the spring of 1933, while attending University High School, Hodges developed a cyst on his spine which partially paralyzed his legs. Hodges entered ISNU as a freshman the following fall. For the first two years he had to wear a plaster cast around his torso and walked only with the assistance of two canes. At the end of his sophomore year he underwent surgery – the first of many – to remove the cyst as well as six vertebrae; thereafter he regained some use of his legs.

Hodges continued to work on the family farm and at the ISNU bookstore throughout college. He graduated from Illinois State Normal University in 1938 with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, having served as both the freshman and senior class president, as well as president of Student Council his junior year. In this oral history he “remember[ed] feeling the day [he] graduated that [he] had had about four years of being as close to heaven as [he] would ever get.” Soon after, Hodge receive a competitive scholarship to the University of Illinois’ graduate program which allowed him to earn a master’s degree in agronomy in 1939.

Following graduation Hodges attempted to take over the Danvers farm full-time but found that his “physical disability was too great and 80 acres too small to provide for [him], so [he] went looking for a job,” according to a May 17, 1981 article in the Bloomington Pantagraph. Hodge would work for several departments within the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the coming decades, including the Farm Security Administration, Production and Market Administration, and Federal Crop Insurance Program. During World War II he served in the War Food Administration, purchasing provisions for the military and monitoring rationed comestibles. In 1943 he married fellow ISNU alum Jane Stevens in Bloomington, Illinois. Together they would go on to have four children. Hodges was appointed central Illinois’ district director of the USDA Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) in 1954, a position he served in until his retirement in 1982. This position involved several trips to Washington, D. C. to help draft congressional legislation and allowed him to meet many prominent political figures, including President Harry Truman. Shortly before his retirement he was honored as ASCS’ National Outstanding Handicapped Employee. John Hodges died in Sun City, Arizona at age 80.

Interview with John Hodge, Class of 1938

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