Hodgson, Paul A., 1891-1955

Paul A. Hodgson (1891-1955) was born in Latham, Kansas. In 1911 he received the appointment to West Point Military Academy from the eighth Congressional district of Kansas. Throughout his four years at West Point he distinguished himself in academics. He graduated eighteenth in the class of 164 in 1915. On the athletic field he also excelled. In football, he was a star on the first undefeated Army team of 1914. He also participated on the varsity baseball and basketball teams, and in track broke the then existing Academy records for the high jump and broad jump. Injuries, however, kept both him and his roommate, Dwight D. Eisenhower from achieving greater fame in athletics. Following West Point, Hodgson attended Army Engineer school in Washington, D.C. In World War I he joined the 11th Division with the 211th Engineers but not in time to go overseas. He married Anne Davis on August 8, 1925. Tours on the West Coast and Washington, D.C., followed by graduation from the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth seemed to be preparing him for new opportunities. Then illness struck him in 1941. After several months in Fitzsimmons General Hospital, he was ordered to be retired for arthritis, a disease which has afflicted him mildly since his West Point days. Then with the outbreak of World War II, he was recalled to active duty as the Executive Officer of Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he remained until August 1945, gaining his promotion to Colonel and the award of the Legion of Merit. Hodgson died October 7, 1955, at the Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco at the age of 63.