Trevor Hodgson was beloved director of Dundas Valley School of Art – Hamilton Spectator

Some people become the teacher’s pet, but Trevor Hodgson was the student’s pet.

“You ask any of the people, students, anyone, he was the friendliest person,” said art instructor John Wilkinson about the man who was the longest serving executive director — 22 years — at the Dundas Valley School of Art. Hodgson died July 7 at age 91.

“He had a broad and good understanding of the arts,” continued Wilkinson. “He worried about the art students. He had a good rapport with the students.”

That included going for lunch with students at Dundas taverns, something Wilkinson said was unheard of at Canadian art schools but was done in he and Hodgson’s native Britain.

“We talked about everything, but mostly art,” said Wilkinson, who has taught at DVSA since 1980 and is director of advanced studies.

Marla Panko, a former DVSA instructor who is now curator of the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, said Hodgson was always accessible.

“He wasn’t one of those who said ‘I’m the executive director and don’t talk to me,’” she said. “His door was always open. I would say he was popular with the students and popular with the faculty.”

Hodgson, who worked at DVSA from 1977-99, was also an accomplished artist and a musician, playing both the saxophone and clarinet. He performed throughout North America and was made an honorary citizen of New Orleans.

Spectator art critic Regina Haggo wrote about an exhibit of Hodgson’s work at the Gallery on the Bay in 2011. She said he was a master of many genres, including human figure, historical narratives and architectural views.

His works hang in collections in Britain, Kentucky and in the National Gallery of Canada. He received a Hamilton Arts Award in 1991.

His children have followed him into the field. His daughter Sarah is a media arts teacher at Westmount Secondary School and his son Paul is a celebrated graphic designer in Toronto.

Sarah said her father was a “people person” who loved his time at DVSA.

“It was a year ago we were driving back to his place and we went by the school,” she said. “He said he should never, never have retired. He loved that place and they loved him. He always saw students as people, not just students.”

Hodgson was born in Bradford, England, on April 27, 1931. His father John was a sign painter and his mother Eve owned a clothing store and hair salon. Hodgson served in the RAF and studied at the Lancaster School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London.

He taught at the Blackpool College of Art and came to Kentucky for a year to teach in 1964. He came to Queen’s University in Kingston in 1969.

In a 1994 interview with The Spec, Hodgson recalled the day in 1977 he informed his colleagues at Queen’s he was moving to the Hamilton area to run an independent art school. DVSA was founded in 1964 and moved into its present location, an old screw factory, at Ogilvie and Hatt streets in 1970.

“People asked me why I was going to a lunch-bucket town, leaving a university with tenure and all that stuff and taking a job like that. They said people last two years in a non-profit organization job. I’ve been here 17 years and I’m not sorry. I’ve enjoyed it all.”

In a statement, DVSA said Hodgson left an indelible mark on the school by creating a full-time studies program and expanding its annual art auction.

“The school would not be what it is today without him,” said Wilkinson. “He had a sense of what an art school should be. It should be a creative place.”

Hodgson is survived by his children Sarah and Paul and seven grandchildren. His wife Thelma died in 2012.

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