2022 Heart of St. Luke Honoree: Dave Hodge

David Hodge was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Chicago. In November 1978, at the young age of 17, Dave enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed to Parris Island, S.C. for boot camp and then on to Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he began learning his military occupation as a radio opera­tor. Dave quickly mastered the system he operated, and by the end of his tour was designated Sergeant E-5. During his service with the Marines, he was stationed at Camp Geiger in North Carolina, MCAS in Arizona, Norway, Iceland, Azores, and the Glenview Naval Air Station.

In 1987, Dave was lucky enough to marry the love of his life, Aileen. As they say, behind every good man is a great woman and this rings true for this couple. Aileen and Dave are blessed to have two boys: Davey born in 1995 and Joey in 1998.

Dave began his almost 40-year tenure with the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1982 at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Chicago, where he worked with St. Luke Parish’s former pastor Fr. Ken Fischer. Dave stated that, at the time, he wasn’t yet sure what he wanted to do in life occupation-wise so he used the opportunity to prove himself as worthy of the position of building engineer of six buildings at such a young age. While at Our Lady Help of Christians, Dave was an instrumental part of the church renovation project.

In 1993 he moved to Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka. That same year he enrolled in trade school in order to be certified in HVAC and electrical work. While at Sacred Heart, Dave was involved in multi-million dollar projects, including a school addition and a new parish center. 

In November 2007, Dave decided it was time for a change and called his old friend Fr. Fischer, who was then pastor of St. Luke Parish, to see if he knew of any job openings. As they say, the Lord works in mysterious ways because the maintenance man at the time had decided to retire right before the first snowfall. Fr. Fischer invited Dave to interview for the role and Dave was hired as the new maintenance director. Much to Dave’s delight, he was able to work again with the person who had taken a chance on a 21-year-old back in 1982.

From his first days at St. Luke Parish and School in January 2008, he said it felt like home. The parishioners, staff, and the students have always supported him and appreciated his hard work, which he says motivates him to always want to give it his all. 

During his time at St. Luke, Dave has been a part of many projects in the school including upgrading building mechanicals, working as the liaison for countless projects to make sure contractors get the job done to specification, tuckpointing the parapet walls, and replacing and refurbishing the window lintels. For St. Luke Church, he managed the massive tuckpointing work on the building and the major reconstruction of the bell tower. And, most recently, he worked with the committee and contractors on the interior renovation of the church. The last year and half have been challenging at the school due to the pandemic and ensuring that everything has been safe for the students and staff — of which Dave is very proud.

One of the things Dave loves most about working for the parish is that everyone agrees that the buildings and operation of them is of the utmost importance. With the creation of the new St. Luke and St. Bernardine Parish, Dave is now the Building Engineer of both complexes. It’s certainly a challenge, but he is happy to tackle anything and everything that needs to be done. Along with his team of Octavia Mercado and his son Joey, Dave knows they will be up to the challenge.

Dave is humbled and honored to be named Heart of St. Luke School. He has always been a behind- the-scenes kind of guy, so he says it feels a little awkward to be thrust into the limelight, but he thanks everyone from the bottom of his heart.