Cleveland Bible College

Dr. George Hodgin was president of Cleveland Bible College (now Malone University) from 1958-1951. Most materials in his collection, however, pertain more to his life as an author and missionary than as an administrator. Living from 1877-1967, Hodgin's activities moved between pastoring, teaching, administration and missionary work. He was first ordained in 1902, and then served as president of a North Carolina bible school. Hodgin then left North Carolina to pastor in Hutchinson, Kansas, and to serve as dean of a bible school there. In 1910, he moved to Pasadena to become Dean of Men at Pasadena Nazarene College, after which he pastored and was Dean of the School in Nampa, Idaho. In Nampa, he earned enough credits to enter the University of Southern California, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in 1920, followed by a Masters' Degree in 1924. After pastoring for several more years, Hodgin and his wife, Swedish native Jennie Stromberg, began a worldwide evangelism tour in 1928, returning in 1931 and then spending two years as missionaries in Guatemala. Ending these two years, Hodgin served at Huntington Park Bible School (later known as Azusa Pacific College) until 1936. After leaving Huntington, Hodgin became president of the National Holiness Association while teaching and heading the Philosophy department at Asbury College in Kentucky. He earned a Doctor of Divinity from John Fletcher College in 1940, which was awarded to him by Dr. C. W. Butler, another Malone president. He came to Cleveland and assumed the presidency of Cleveland Bible College in 1946, retiring in 1951 in part due to the poor health of his wife, who died in 1954. For three years, he taught at Western Pilgrim Bible College while evangelizing in the Pacific Northwest region until poor health caused him to retire again. He married writer Evelyn Hodgin in 1958; Evelyn compiled his biography, which she donated with many of Hodgin's other papers to the Malone archives. Hodgin was also a recorded minister in the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. After a colorful life, he died in 1967 after taking a damaging fall in December of 1966.

From the guide to the Malone University Presidential Collections: Dr. George Arnold Hodgin., 1930-1999, 1946-1951, (Malone University, Everett L Cattell Library)