Fletcher Hodges Jr. (August 6, 1905 – March 13, 2006) was an American who curated the Foster Hall Collection, a collection of documents and music related to

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inclu ...

at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, for fifty-one years.

Biography

Hodges, an

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

native, graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He was hired during the Great Depression by

Josiah K. Lilly Sr. Josiah Kirby Lilly Sr. (November 18, 1861 – February 8, 1948), nicknamed "J. K.," was an American businessman, pharmaceutical industrialist, and philanthropist who became president and chairman of the board of Eli Lilly and Company, the pharm ...

, owner of the

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by, and named after, Colon ...

pharmaceutical corporation, to organize the Lilly family's archive of Foster materials, which then numbered 20,000 items. Lilly was a friend of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

John Gabbert Bowman John Gabbert Bowman (May 18, 1877 – December 2, 1962) was the tenth Chancellor (1921–1945) of the University of Pittsburgh and the ninth President (1911–1914) of the University of Iowa. He is best known for initiating and completin ...

, and he later donated the archive in 1937 to Bowman's newly constructed

Stephen Foster Memorial The Stephen Collins Foster Memorial is a performing arts center and museum which houses the Stephen Foster Archives at the University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsbur ...

on the Pitt campus. Hodges moved from Indianapolis to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

with the collection.

Personal life

Hodges' wife,

Margaret Hodges Sarah Margaret Hodges née Moore (July 26, 1911 – December 13, 2005) was an American writer of children's books, librarian, and storyteller. Sarah Margaret Moore was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to Arthur Carlisle Moore and Annie Marie Moo ...

, was a

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Servic ...

winning writer of books for children. She preceded him in death in December 2005. After contraction of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

, Hodges Jr. died on March 13, 2006, at a retirement home in

Oakmont, Pennsylvania Oakmont is a borough in Allegheny County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is a Pittsburgh suburb and part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 6,303 as of the 2010 Census. Incorporated as a town in 1889, this Allegheny River ...

Bibliography

*Stephen Foster: America's Troubadour (co-written with John Tasker Howard), New York — Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1934. *A Pittsburgh Composer and his Memorial. Pittsburgh — Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1938? *Stephen Foster, Democrat. Pittsburgh — University of Pittsburgh, 1945. *The Research Work of the Foster Hall Collection. Philadelphia — Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1948. *Stephen Foster. An address by Mr. Fletcher Hodges Jr., given at the 1949 Annual Meeting of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. Cincinnati — Printed and bound by the C.J. Krehbiel Co., 1950. *Swanee River and a Biographical Sketch of Stephen Collins Foster, White Springs, Florida. — Stephen Foster Memorial Association, 1958.

References

External links

* Correspondence to and from Fletcher Hodges Jr., Foster Hall Collection, University of Pittsburgh. Section: C869. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodges, Fletcher Jr. People from Pittsburgh American centenarians Men centenarians 1905 births 2006 deaths Harvard University alumni Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania 20th-century American musicologists