March 26, 1954 – Dec. 28, 2024
Longtime Cordova resident James Ken Hodges passed away peacefully on Dec. 28, 2024 at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, from complications stemming from bone cancer. He was 70 years old.
He was known as “Ken,” “Uncle Ken” or “Saint Ken” by all those who knew him, and by all those who were fortunate to have crossed paths with him.
Ken was a kind, humble, generous, and compassionate person.
Born in Berkeley, California to father James and mother Toshiko, he was raised in Richmond, California. His mother was of Japanese ancestry and his father of Midwest Missourian ancestry.
Ken was exposed to the outdoors at a young age. He was in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Explorer Scouts, earning the highest rank of Eagle Scout. His father and two brothers also were Eagle Scouts.
Ken attended John F. Kennedy High School in 1972, which was an experimental, educational excellence high school in Richmond. Ken’s high school aptitude test identified his best job fit as a minister.
Ken was part of the “reverse-bussing” program that brought in primarily white students into the impoverished Black and Hispanic zones. As a result, Ken had many friends of differing ethnicities.
Ken played trumpet from elementary school through high school. Ken and his friends started a punk-rock band (the Quitters) in the late 1970s, the highlight playing live on stage in San Francisco. It surprised no one that Ken would be a member of a punk-rock band with that kind of name.
After graduating from high school, Ken attended the University of California-Berkeley, where he earned two degrees in English and in journalism.
Ken earned money for college by working as an apprentice machinist and by driving cab in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond.
After college, he found a job as radio newscaster in Crescent City, on the north coast of California. He also moonlighted as a disc-jockey, DJ’ing the 10 p.m.-2 a.m. air slots – two hours of oldies, two hours of rock.
But the pay as a radio newscaster was low and the action slow, and after turning down a job offer from a LA news station, he stepped away from his radio newscaster career. He remained in the Northern California coast area where later he would discover the essence of his interests: Fish.
He enrolled at Humboldt State in nearby Arcata, California and earned a third bachelor’s degree, this time in fisheries biology.
After earning his fisheries degree, Ken worked short stints for the California Department of Fish & Game in Northern California and the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife in southern Oregon.
In 1986, Ken moved to Cordova, taking a job as fisheries biologist for the Chugach National Forest, where he remained until his retirement in 2014. Cordova was his home, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
During his time in Cordova, Ken became an expert in aquatic and terrestrial ecology on the Copper River Delta. In addition to fisheries, he had a deep knowledge of mycology and rain forest ecosystems. He became an expert in fungi and mushrooms on the Delta and shared his knowledge at the annual fungus festival.
This, along with his salmon and trout expertise, culminated in Ken volunteering many days and hours every year, sharing his knowledge of science and fisheries to the young and old, to layperson and professional. His scientific knowledge of the Delta and his desire to share it was unsurpassed.
During his 28 years as a fisheries biologist in Cordova, Ken mentored many new, young aspiring scientists. His experience and knowledge also contributed to the success of many research projects on the Delta, spanning decades. The scores of both young and aspiring and high-level senior scientists that have passed through the curve of Ken’s trajectory are widely known.
As a result, Ken seemingly had connections everywhere throughout, North America of scientists thriving in jobs elsewhere, after first working with Ken in Cordova.
Ken was also an avid reader and erstwhile Book-Club member, reading all genres, but preferring non-fiction and history. His father loved literature, especially Shakespeare, and both his parents were fluent in the Spanish language. His mother and father met in a Spanish literature class in UCLA.
Ken’s library of books, like his music library, was broad and diverse. One could go far into the night discussing books and literature with Ken, or just listening to Ken’s music: The Pogues or GG Allin, in analog, loud and raspy, pumped through his 1970s era turntable, his Kenwood amp, and his Magnavox tower speakers.
Ken’s gift was bringing people together through kindness, generosity, and compassion. While growing up, his family always shared their house with people in need, some staying months or even years.
As a scientist, a newscaster, and a DJ; an angler, a hunter, a teacher; a punk rocker and great dancer; a lover of eclectic music and literature; a scuba diver and a cyclist (Ken cycled thousand-mile trips through California and Oregon); and as a host of many Super Bowl and Saint Patrick’s Day parties – Ken was a Renaissance man.
Ken was known for his generosity and kindness. Many of us have been the recipients of his charity and compassion, and the opening of his house to stay or crash when no other place was available.
He never missed an opportunity to offer a hand, or to share his knowledge and wisdom if asked – he taught us how to fish, how to identify mushrooms, how to cook wild game, and how to invest in our 401Ks.
His acts of kindness encouraged us all to be better people and scientists.
Ken is survived by brothers, Bryan and Craig, three nephews, two grand-nephews, and a grand-niece.
A celebration of the Ken’s life will take place on July 17, 2025, in Cordova, during the week of Salmon Jam, one of Ken’s favorite events.
