Philip Douglas “Doug” Hodgkins

PALM COAST, Fla. – Philip Douglas “Doug” Hodgkins, passed away peacefully at home on Sept. 16, 2025, at the age of 88, after living with Parkinson’s for many years.

Doug was born Sept. 2, 1937, at the Thayer Hospital in Waterville. He attended Mallet Grammar and Farmington High School. In June 1959, he graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. While growing up in Farmington he drove school and charter busses for his father’s Triangle Bus Line and loved snow skiing with his Maine friends.

Upon college graduation, his first federal government job was at the Navy’s Atlantic Test Center (NATC) at Patuxent River, Md., where he went through the Navy’s Test Pilot School Class 29. He continued to work in various navy departments both in Maryland and Washington, D.C. The time he lived in Maryland was full of many entertainments. He was a water-skiing enthusiast and served as the president of the St. Mary’s Water Ski Club at Abell’s Wharf in St. Leonard, Md.

He transferred to the Federal Aviation Administration where he travelled internationally working on many programs to include the advanced secondary radar system know as Mode S. He retired from the FAA in 1994 and went to work for the British Aerospace Equipment (BAE) company and then to the International Telephone and Telegraph (IT&T) company. He retired to Palm Coast, Fla. in 2013. Doug was very proud of his career and contributions.

Doug loved spending time with his family, especially on his 24-foot Bayliner where we all cruised on the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Philip Clarence Hodgkins and Eleanor Annie Larcom (Hodgkins), stepmother, Olive May Whitney (Hodgkins); brother, Albion Larcom Hodgkins; previous wife, Donna Patricia Schaffer; and nephew, Jason Todd Farthing.

He is survived by his wife, Bonnie Marie Bennett (Hodgkins) who lives in Palm Coast, Fla.; daughter, Lisa Ann Dombroski (Hodgkins), her husband John, daughters Megan and Lindsay who live in Flower Mound, Texas; son, Chadwick Oliver Hodgkins and his wife Casey, who live in Hollywood, Md.; sister, Rosalind Selma Hodgkins who lives in Port Jervis, N.Y., sister, Sheridene Frances Farthing (Hodgkins), her husband Robert “Bob” who live in South Casco, and their daughter Cathy Streifel (Farthing), husband Chris, and children Camden and Cassidy who live in Windham; numerous cousins; and his first wife, Barbara Cook.

He was a good guy and while we miss and love him dearly, we find peace knowing that he is free of Parkinson’s and is happy and healthy on his boat on the other side.

A Celebration of Life will be held on May 16 in Southern Maryland, please contact [email protected] for details.