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# Revered SMC professor dies
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/revolutions-surpasses-reloaded/
- Published: 2003-11-05T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:09:56.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Education, Pacific Palisades, #archive-import

*By Daily Press Staff*

Retired Santa Monica College English professor Dick Dodge, 77, died Friday in his Pacific Palisades home.

Dodge, who taught at SMC for 36 years before his retirement in 1992, also was a prolific author who wrote or co-wrote more than 20 books on subjects ranging from basketball to “Star Trek.”

He was well-known on campus for his “11 Great Books” list he often talked about, ranging from Evelyn Waugh’s “The Loved One” to “Huckleberry Finn” and “Walden.” He had colorful anecdotes — often relating to his many students who went on to be celebrities.

Dodge once noted that he had seen some strange things during his tenure at SMC, but one of oddest was when one of his students — Dean Martin’s son Dino — walked into a writing conference with an agent. “What do you do with something like that... negotiate with the agent for a grade?” he told a reporter in 1990.

He gained national notoriety as advisor to the campus yearbook when it published a nude, male centerfold in 1972.

Born in Lawrence, Mass., Dodge earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree at UCLA. He served in the army from 1944 to 1946 and in the Korean War from 1951 to 1953.

He is survived by his wife, Corrine; two children from his earlier marriage, Ashley and Jason; and two grandchildren.

Services will be held at 3 p.m. Wed., Nov. 5 at the Unitarian Church, 1260 18th St. (at Arizona Avenue) in Santa Monica. The family has asked that instead of flowers, memorial donations be sent to the John Wayne Cancer Institute for Melanoma Research, 2200 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica 90404.

Dodge made an indelible mark on this college and on generations of students, and his uncanny knack for engaging students, unique personality and spirit will have a permanent place in the college history. He was an institution at SMC, and his students loved learning from him as much as he loved teaching.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 5, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)