Barbara Anne Radtke

Burlington, MA – Barbara Anne Radtke, 77, the beloved wife of the late Andrew Hodyke, died Friday, October 31, 2025, at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington after suffering a stroke five days earlier. Born on November 2,1947 in Hackensack, New Jersey, Barbara was the daughter of the late Conrad James Radtke and late Anne (Henzel) Radtke. Her first home was the house in Hackensack that her grandfather Max Otto Radtke had designed and built and where her father had been raised.

She lived in Westwood, NJ during her elementary and high school years. She graduated from St. Andrew School (Westwood) and Immaculate Heart Academy (Washington Township, NJ). She began college majoring in architecture at Catholic University of America (CUA) but ultimately graduated from CUA with a B.A. and an M.A. in Religion and Religious Education. She earned a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College in a program jointly administered by Boston College's Department of Theology and Andover Newton Theological School, now known as Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School.

Barbara shaped her professional life by being a religious educator in a parish and being an instructor/administrator in higher education. As a religious educator, she engaged students in every grade level (K-12). She also served as a parish Director of Religious Education in Virginia Beach, VA and Damascus, MD. In higher education, she taught both undergraduate and graduate students, especially those grad students preparing for ministry. She served as full-time faculty at Emmanuel College (Boston, MA) and Notre Dame College (Manchester, NH). She served as part-time faculty at LaSalle University's (Philadelphia, PA) summer religion program and Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA).

At Notre Dame College she helped establish the Ministry Institute and eventually served as its director. In 2001, she was awarded Notre Dame College's Faculty of the Year Award. At Boston College, she established the online faith formation program C21 Online, which eventually became CSTM Online: Crossroads in the Clough Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She was the inaugural director of the Clough School of Theology's Continuing Education. She relinquished that role to pursue online instructional design for faith formation courses. During her tenure, she designed about 50 learning experiences for the Crossroads program.

Barbara is the author of Understanding the Sacraments: The Fabric of Our Catholic Lives, Entering the Next Stage with Grace: A Spiritual Approach to Retirement, and a number of articles and book reviews. During her career she gave numerous presentations at parishes and local religious education gatherings. After retirement, she and her friend Kathy Hendricks created Still Blooming (stillblooming.blog), a blog expressing the viewpoint of women in their 70s and older.

Barbara had many part-time jobs while she pursued her education. She worked retail, baby sat, drafted construction details for retail sales space and, as a young teen, ran a small "enterprise" of helping mothers give birthday parties for small children. While pursuing her Masters she drafted construction details for the D.C. Metro and was a teacher's aide in Bladensburg (MD) Junior High. While pursuing her doctorate, she was a work study student in the archives of Andover Newton Theological School, an experience which informed her doctoral pursuits.

Barbara was an avid Girl Scout from second grade through high school. She loved to travel. After college she drove cross country with two friends, heading West through Canada and returning back east across a northern U.S. route. She and her husband Andrew toured locations in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She found both relaxation and enjoyment at the ocean locations. She vacationed for many years in the Boothbay Harbor region of Maine where she photographed many of the light houses that dotted the coast and major waterways. She was grateful to her sister Teri and brother-in-law Bill for their generous hospitality in sharing their home on Block Island, RI for many summer visits.

She found it nourishing to immerse herself in art and enjoyed going to many exhibits in New England museums. Above all she valued family and friends. The family gathering at Thanksgiving, graciously hosted by her sister and brother-in-law, was always a highlight of the year. A meeting with friends for a discussion or a meal was always a gift with a sacramental flavor.

In addition to her parents Conrad J. Radtke and Anne H. Radtke, Barbara is pre-deceased by her husband of 28 years, Andrew Hodyke, her brothers Michael J. Radtke, Bruce M. Radtke and Steven Radtke. She is survived by her sister Therese McCombe and brother-in-law William A. McCombe; sister-in-law, Rondi Radtke, and her sister-in-law Gail Hodyke; nephews and nieces David Grigsby, Sarah Hill, Trevor McCombe, Mark Radtke, Thomas Radtke, and Danika Wright; and grand-nieces and grand-nephews including Rowan Andrew McCombe.

Her family will gather privately in the future to honor and celebrate her life. Donations made in her memory to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105 (http://stjude.org/memorial) or to The Parkinson's Foundation, 200 SE 1st Street, Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131 (http://www.parkinson.org) would be kindly appreciated.