Russell Hodges is Associate Professor of Music in the Division of Music of the Bernice Young Jones School of Fine Arts at Ouachita Baptist University where he has taught since 1976. His music teaching responsibilities are in the areas of organ and church music. He was the founding director of the Ouachita Handbell Ringers which he conducted for 26 years and serves as the University's Music Librarian. With the creation of a new university core curriculum, he began teaching Introduction to the Liberal Arts for the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. He is actively involved in committee work and other campus activities. Hodges holds the Bachelor of Music degree with Honors from Oklahoma Baptist University and the Master of Music degree from the University of Oklahoma. Both degrees were earned with a major in organ performance. His organ teachers were Virginia Denyer Reese and Mildred Andrews Boggess. In 1994 he completed the Master of Science degree in Library Science at the University of North Texas.
Hodges is a member of numerous professional organizations and honor societies in the fields of music and librarianship. He has done extensive performing and accompanying and has led workshops in organ and church music throughout the South and Southwest. He has worked as a church musician for churches in Oklahoma and Arkansas as organist, choir director, and handbell director. He recently resumed responsibilities as Director of Music/Organist for the First Presbyterian Church of Arkadelphia, a position he previously held for over twenty years.