Obituary: Award-Winning photographer Elbert F. "Bert" Hodge

Award-winning photographer Elbert F. "Bert" Hodge, 82, of Springfield, who won national acclaim for his pictures during his 33 years on staff at the Delaware County Daily Times, died Oct. 19.

Hodge's Memorial Service will be 11 a.m. on Saturday at Covenant United Methodist Church, 212 W. Springfield Road, Springfield. Visitation will be 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the church. 

According to his obituary, Hodge, who photographed almost every president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton, "was as adept at taking pictures of nature as he was of national figures. In 1974, he won first place for color photography out of 488 submissions from the Pennsylvania Press Photographers Association for his picture of the sun setting behind the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester."

His obituary continues with stories from his life as a photographer:

"Hodge was barely on the job with the Delaware County Daily Times a month when, in August 1963, he was placed behind a state police barricade while photographing an angry white mob encroaching on a black couple, Horace and Sarah Baker, and their 2-year-old daughter moving into their new home in Folcroft.Mr. Hodge was undeterred in snapping pictures of the rioting crowd including a photograph of adolescent white boys screaming taunts and making threatening gestures at the black family that gained national attention.

"Seven months later, Mr. Hodge was covering a peaceful civil rights demonstration at Seventh Street and Edgmont Avenue in Chester when police appeared and started dragging the young protesters away.As Mr. Hodge snapped photographs, he was knocked to the ground by what he believed was a policeman who then ordered him to get into the police wagon. He remembered hearing a black photographer gasping for air as police dragged him with a night stick against his neck. Mr. Hodge continued to photograph demonstrators, on the ground with bleeding heads, through a window the size of a peephole in the back of the wagon."