GLOUCESTER: Edmund “Ted” Hodgen, 91, died Wednesday evening, November 30, 2011 following an extended illness. He was the husband of Carolyn L. (Parsons) Hodgen.
Born in Greenfield on November 8, 1920, he was the son of the late Robert J. and Anne T. (Welsh) Hodgen. He was a graduate of the Gloucester High School class of 1939 and the Stockbridge School of Agriculture class of 1941.
Following graduation, he was employed by his brother Robert J. Hodgen, Jr., who had established a landscape business on Great Neck, Long Island, New York.
A World War II veteran, Ted enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in July of 1942. He trained in Arkansas and attended radio school at Scott Field, Illinois. Later transferring to Signal Headquarters 26 Flight Command 6th Air Force, he served as a Radio and Radar operator in the Panama Canal Zone. Ted was honorably discharged at the rank of Sergeant in January of 1946.
Ted was employed as caretaker of a private estate in Newton for forty years, from 1946 until his retirement and return to Gloucester in 1986.
He served as Chaplain of the Edward Peterson Post #98, American Legion of Rockport, was a 32nd degree mason and member of The Tyrian-Ashler-Acacia Lodge, A.F. & A.M. of Gloucester and the Aleppo Temple Shrine.
In addition to his wife of sixty-eight years, he is survived by his daughter, Doris Hodgen of Vermillion, SD; his son, Ted Hodgen, Jr. of Shutesbury, and his companion, Kate Hayden; his granddaughter, Gillian Hodgen, and her husband, Erik Paulsen; and many nieces and nephews. He was also predeceased by seven brothers, Isaac, George, Joseph, Alden, Woodrow, Robert and John Hodgen.
His funeral service will be held on Monday December 12th in the Pike-Grondin Funeral Home, 61 Middle Street, Gloucester at one p.m. Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend. There are no visiting hours. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in his memory to the Shriners Hospital for Children, 51 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114. Interment will be held privately in the Oak Grove Cemetery.