2024 Honorary Member

Seed Trade Association of Arizona honors longtime member Pat Hodges, Jr.

By Joyce Lobeck

While he hasn’t been in the seed business for 20 years, Patrick Hodges Jr. has been named the 2024 Honorary Member by the Seed Trade Association of Arizona for his longtime and continuing support of the organization.

“It is an honor,” he said of the recognition. “I have my foot off the seed industry but I keep my finger in it. I go to the annual spring conferences and attend the meetings. I keep up with a lot of first-hand knowledge through my brother and sons (his brother and one son are in the seed business, another son is in crop production).”

In addition, his wife, Tanya, is the Regional Academic Programs manager for the University of Arizona in Yuma. In that role, she is heavily involved in STAA’s scholarship program and serves as an ex officio member of the board. “I’m her biggest advocate,” Hodges said. “I’m always there to lend a hand and support her.”

Hodges was a charter member of Arizona’s Seed Trade Association founded in 1992, served as an original board member of the organization and was president in 1995

His father, P.K. Hodges, who died in 2017, also had been involved in STAA over the years and was recognized as STAA’s Honorary Member in 2005.

The younger Hodges obtained a bachelor’s degree in agriculture plant science from the University of Arizona in 1985 and began his career as a sales representative in Yuma and Imperial Valley for H&H Seed Company Inc. The company had been founded by his father and Phil Hornung in 1979 and became noted for its Bermuda grass seed program.

In 1999, Hodges became the owner and president of H&H Seed as well as Southwest Transplants, the first seedling transplant business in the desert Southwest. H&H Seed was sold in 2003 to Barkley Seed.

Since then, Hodges has been the agricultural land specialist in Yuma and Imperial Valley for A.T. Pancrazi Real Estate Services. With his background in agriculture, he brings a strong understanding of all aspects of agricultural land use to the table for both owners and buyers.

“My job today … a lot of it I credit back to my time in the seed industry,” he said. “The networking, raising crops on various soils. I gained an understanding of microclimates and soils. It all comes together nicely. The seed industry is in my blood. I cut my teeth on my career in it 40 years ago.” Hodges is descended from a Yuma County pioneer family. Over the years, various family members were influential in the community, raising cattle, establishing businesses and serving in government. His great-grandfather, Francis Marion (F.M.), was one the area’s first sheriffs in the 1880s, and grandfather James Hodges was a municipal judge.

Past Honorary Members