Ruth Evelyn Hodge is an American archivist, author, educator, and community activist who has furthered the advancement of African-American and United States military history research and writing during the 20th and early 21st centuries.

[3] According to news reporter Pamilla Saylor, Ruth Perry was an avid student of history from the time of her early childhood "when she was taught that Pennsylvania was a 'salvation to the Underground Railroad.'"

A 1954 graduate of Williamsport High School, she went on to complete her bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Lycoming College in 1958,[6][7][8] and then began her own family when she wed Marcus Lee Hodge (1930–2017) on September 26, 1959.

[21] According to news reporter Michael Bupp, Hodge "spent six years digging through 69,000 feet of archived documents to compile" the materials for her book during the summer of 2000.

Andrew Curtin noticed the number of blacks heading elsewhere to enlist.In 2001, she delivered a lecture on the life and work of Charles Franklin Moss, the early 20th-century Carlisle photographer who reportedly also created the design for Pennsylvania's state flag.

[27] In 2005, she played a key role in Carlisle's celebration of National African American History Month, helping to coordinate a February program at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church with the theme, "The Niagara Movement: Black Protest Reborn 1905-2005" for which Sheila Y. Flemming, dean of the School of Social Sciences and professor of history at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, served as the keynote speaker.

Other presenters at the May 9 program included: Pennsylvania State Senator Pat Vance; the city's mayor, Kirk Wilson; the church's pastor, Rev.

In addition to serving her congregation as a deaconess and church historian, she founded the institution's Robert C. Gaskill Library, naming it in honor of the first African-American appointed as commandant of the U.S. Army War College.

Following funeral services at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on July 19, he was laid to rest with full military honors at the Cumberland Valley Memorial Gardens.