Melville Thomas Hodder

HODDER, Melville Thomas

Melville, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, died peacefully on November 7, at age 84, after a long illness, with Lissa, his wife of 63 years, by his side and surrounded by the love of his family and friends. Mel was a Boston boy. He graduated from Browne & Nichols School in 1956, where he served as co-captain of the hockey and undefeated football teams. Mel later served as a longtime trustee of both Browne & Nichols and the Buckingham schools, where he advocated for co-education and helped to navigate the successful merger in 1974.

Mel spent summers in Maine in the late 1950s, where he served as Secretary to the Northeast Harbor Fleet on Mount Desert Island and won the heart of the beautiful and brilliant, Lissa Owens. Over their years together, Lissa and Mel called Maine their second home.

Mel attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School. As an undergraduate, Mel rowed in the victorious 1959 Harvard Henley eight, played hockey and was a member of the Fly and Hasty Pudding Clubs. He was a founder of the Michael C Rockefeller Fellowship, established in honor of his freshman roommate, and he remained dedicated to its community of adventurers throughout his life. He married Elizabeth Davis Owens (Lissa) in Bar Harbor in 1960. After graduating from HBS, Mel joined his father at the brokerage firm Hayden Stone & Co in Boston, where he would work, under an ever-changing corporate name, for more than 60 years until his recent retirement from Morgan Stanley as a Senior Vice President. A successful institutional salesman and wealth manager, Mel was known in the

Boston financial community for his principled approach to investments for his clients. Mel was kind, generous of spirit and a community builder. He faithfully served as a parishioner and lay-leader at Christ Church, Cambridge. Acting as financial advisor to the national Episcopal Church for decades, Mel served as chair of the Episcopal Church’s Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. Mel served his community generously as a longtime trustee of the Hayden Recreation Center in Lexington, of the Cambridge Community Foundation and of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston’s MFA, now part of Tufts University.

Mel’s love of family was abounding and abiding. He shared with his four children and twelve grandchildren his irrepressible affinity for all things active, especially skiing, a love of music and an endless supply of irreverent stories. He was a loyal friend, actively attending to his many friendships, old and new. Mel approached life by doing and loved life in its richest and most simple forms. Mel is survived by wife, Lissa; daughter, Elizabeth Hodder Corbus and husband, Clay Corbus of San Francisco, CA; and their children, Josiah, Ellie and James; daughter, Lucy Hodder and husband, Rob Thomson of Hopkinton, NH; and their children, Andrew and Rebecca; daughter, Sarah Hodder and husband, Peter Allen of Durham, NC; and their children, Charles, Edwin James and Harris; and son, Sam Hodder and wife, Kendra Gaither Hodder of Orinda, CA; and their children, Henry, Ben, Oscar and Wells; and many close in-laws, nieces and nephews. Mel was predeceased by his parents, Edwin James and Rora Melville Hodder; and his older brother, Edwin.

A Memorial Service and Celebration of Melville’s Life will be held at Christ Church, Cambridge, Zero Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, on Saturday, January 13, at 11 o’clock. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Cambridge Community Foundation, 99 Bishop Allen Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139. A more detailed obituary can be found, at https://www.brownandhickey.com/obituary/Melville-Hodder