Michael Hodges

1941 - 2026

Michael Starling Hodges died on Sunday, January 18, 2026, at the SECU Hospice House of Johnston Health in Smithfield after a weekend surrounded by the people he loved most in this world. A beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend, Michael was known for his deep love for and devotion to his family, personal strength, amiable nature, humble spirit, and commitment to serving others.



He was born on October 30, 1941, in Greensboro, NC, to the late Mabel Estelle Starling and Earl McKinley Hodges. When he was four years old, he contracted polio and was hospitalized for a year. This experience, which left his upper left torso, arm, and hand permanently paralyzed, developed in him a strength and determination to do and be the same things as every other child, long before the ADA existed. But what could have turned to bitterness in others existed in Michael as a generous, affable, and irrepressible can-do spirit.



Michael excelled in school and was voted president of his senior class. He was the first in his family to attend college, beginning at NC State University and graduating from Campbell College (now Campbell University) in 1964. He was recruited upon graduation by the North Carolina Department of Revenue and began work there as an auditor. He progressed through the department over the years, overseeing the team's transition of North Carolina's income tax returns from manual to computerized processing, as well as other initiatives designed to improve the taxpayers' experience and the department's efficiency. He served on the executive committee of the Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (SEATA) for several years, helping plan and execute the organization's annual conferences. Later in his career, Governor Jim Hunt appointed Michael to serve as Assistant Secretary of Tax Administration, a position he held until his retirement in 2000.



He met his future wife, Joyce Nobles, in the seventh grade, and they later became high school sweethearts. They married in Hope Mills, NC, on August 18, 1963, and celebrated 58 years of marriage shortly before Joyce died in 2021. Michael and Joyce were the love of one another's lives and inseparable. Michael loved "the cruise life" with Joyce, family vacations at Oak Island, NC, weekend getaways to the mountains and Beaufort, NC, and traveling the country with Joyce on his conferences and business trips.



Michael had a strong call to serve others, which, in addition to his long career in state government, included many years as a volunteer firefighter and certified EMT in rural Wake County, and a decade of service to his church as its treasurer, facilities manager, and an usher. He enjoyed reading and loved learning new things, picking up numerous hobbies over his many years, from ham radio and model trains to NC history, photography, sailing, woodworking, and building, to name a few.



Of the many roles Michael held throughout his life, his most treasured was being "Papa" to his grandchildren. He spent countless hours playing with them, picking them up from school, taking them to parks, libraries, and museums, attending their performances, celebrating birthdays and holidays together, vacationing with them, and much more. He was an unfailing source of support, advice, and encouragement for their every endeavor, and he passed along to them a heart for serving others.



Michael is survived by his daughter Joye Hodges Douthart and son-in-law Charles "Chuck" Douthart, grandchildren Ryan and Rebecca Douthart, brother Steve Carver and wife Norma, sisters-in-law Judy Faulkner and Martha Nobles, former sister-in-law Anne Carver, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his greatest love and best friend, Joyce Nobles Hodges; dear friend and brother-in-law, Alan Nobles; sister-in-law, Jean Pritchett; brother-in-law, Franklin Faulkner; sister-in-law, Jenny Carver; and his mother, Mabel, and stepfather, Alvis Carver, as well as several Starling aunts, uncles, and cousins.



The family is grateful to Esmeralda de Tejada, Ida Sanders, Charity Bryant, and Claudette Jones for their loving and attentive care, companionship, and support of Michael in his final years.



A Service of Witness to the Resurrection will be held on Saturday, February 21, at 2:00 p.m., at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC. All are welcome.



In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing in Michael's memory to one of the following:



Johnston Health Foundation Hospice Fund. To give online, visit www.johnstonhealth.org/donate and select "Hospice Fund," or you may mail a check to Johnston Health Foundation, PO Box 1376, Smithfield, NC 27577.



Westminster Presbyterian Church. To give online, visit https://www.wpcdurham.org/give/, or mail a check to the church at 3639 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC 27709.