John Dale Hodges (May 19, 1941 – December 31, 2023) was a Canadian municipal-level politician in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, who served as

Calgary City Council The Calgary City Council is the legislative governing body that represents the citizens of Calgary. The council consists of 15 members: the chief elected official, titled the mayor, and 14 councillors. Jyoti Gondek was elected mayor in October 202 ...

Ward 1

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

for thirty years—from 1983 until his retirement in 2013. The east Bowmont Park was renamed the Dale Hodges Park in recognition of his many contributions to the city as "Calgary’s longest-serving member of council" including his role in protecting and creating parks such as east Bowmont Park,

Nose Hill Park Nose Hill Park is a natural park in the northwest quadrant of Calgary, Alberta which covers over . It is the fourth-largest urban park in Canada, and one of the largest urban parks in North America. It is a municipal park, unlike Fish Creek, w ...

, and Baker Park and the establishment of the Enmax Legacy Parks Program.

Early life

Hodges was born in Saskatchewan on May 19, 1941. His family moved to Alberta when he was five. He lived in Calgary from 1952 and in northwest Calgary from 1975.

Early career

Hodges worked as a librarian with the

Calgary Public Library The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is a distributed library system featuring 22 branch locations including the Central Library. As of 2012, it is the second most used system in Canada (after the Toronto Public Library) and the sixth most used libr ...

from 1967 to 1983.

Tenure as Alderman

The area he served—Ward 1—includes the communities of Bowness,

Canada Olympic Park Canada Olympic Park (COP), formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill, is a ski hill and multi-purpose training and competition facility located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, owned and operated by WinSport. It is currently used both for high performance ...

, Crestmont, Greenwood Village/Green Briar, Montgomery, Rocky Ridge, Scenic Acres, Silver Springs,

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, University Heights, Valley Ridge, and Varsity. In 1983, when he was first elected,

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2 ...

was mayor. Over the next thirty years, Hodges "served alongside five mayors and 50 aldermen." During that period "Calgary hosted the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...

and expanded numerous urban parks including

and Baker Park as well as recreation facilities. The 1988 Winter Olympics, Baker Park and the "long-awaited northwest LRT" built during Hodges' tenure, are considered to be among his career highlights.

Dale Hodges Park

On April 25, 2017, the City of Calgary announced that east Bowmont Park would be renamed the Dale Hodges Park to recognize Hodges' contributions to the city as "Calgary’s longest-serving member of council". Among other accomplishments, Hodges was honoured for his work defending Calgary's green-spaces. This included the reclamation of the former concrete pit site into east Bowmont Park and for his contribution to protecting

. He was also recognized for his role in ongoing funding for city parks through the Enmax Legacy Parks Program. As part of the Park, the former Klippert gravel pit, which was located along the northern bank of the Bow River, was transformed into a structured series of upland native riparian habitats with recreation and park amenities including "stormwater wetlands, wildlife habitat, trails for cycling and walking, and lookout points across the scenic river valley". One of the main focuses of the project was stormwater treatment before entering the Bow River.

Personal life and death

Hodges lived in his Bowness home on the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

, which had been built in 1961, until the

2013 Alberta floods In the days leading up to June 19, 2013, parts of southern and central Alberta, Canada experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding described by the provincial government as the worst in History of Alberta, Alberta's history. ...

. Hodges was instrumental in having a Bowness

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clubhouse demolished. In 2001, Hodges was a court witness against a former member of the Hells Angels charged with conspiring to blow up the alderman's home in Bowness. Hodges died at a hospice in Calgary on December 31, 2023, at the age of 82.

References

External links

City of Calgary Ward 1 homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, Dale 1941 births 2023 deaths Calgary city councillors