Ernest Hodgson, PhD
Ernest Hodgson, long time resident of Raleigh and Distinguished Professor of Toxicology at North Carolina State University died on October 10, 2018 in Raleigh. He was preceded in death by his wife of 42 years, Mary K. Devlin Hodgson, and is survived by his four children, Mary Elizabeth Hodgson, Audrey Catherine Hodgson Myers, Patricia Emily Devlin Hodgson and Ernest Victor Felix Hodgson as well as four grandchildren, Carl Ernest Larson, Maxwell Patrick Larson, Robert Christopher Myers and Christopher Thomas Myers.
Dr. Hodgson was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at NCSU. He was born July 26, 1932 in Hetton-le-Hole, Durham, England and educated at the King’s College of the University of Durham (now Newcastle University) (B. Sc., with Honors), and Oregon State University (Ph.D.). After a Post- Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Entomology at NCSU in 1961, becoming a William Neal Reynolds Professor in 1977 and the first head of the new Department of Toxicology in 1989. He was well known for his toxicological research and his outreach activities as well as his service to the profession of toxicology. He was also known as the editor and lead author of two well received toxicology textbooks. His work as a lexicographer included the Dictionary of Toxicology and the Dictionary of Agromedicine.
He was recognized for his contributions to toxicology on many occasions. He received the Education Award, the Merit Award (1994) and the Distinguished Toxicology Scholar Award (2012) from SOT as well as the Burdick & Jackson Award (1989) and the Sterling Hendricks Award (1997), from the American Chemical Society and the Fred J. DiCarlo Distinguished Service Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX). In 1996 he received the O. Max Gardner Award, an award given by the Consolidated University of North Carolina to the faculty member considered to have made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race in the past year. He served ISSX in a number of capacities, most notably as President in 1998 and 1999.
Dr. Hodgson was one of the organizers of the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute and Agromedicine continued to be a lifelong interest.
