LEWISTON – Bates College professor emeritus Douglas Hodgkin was recovering at a Portland hospital Tuesday from an apparent heart attack after running a half-marathon Sunday.

Reports on Tuesday were that Hodgkin, 69, suffered a heart attack after completing the Maine Marathon in Portland.

“He finished the race,” said Bates College spokesman Bryan McNulty. “From what I understand, he was in the massage line when he started feeling badly.”

Hodgkin started feeling light-headed, was taken to the medical tent, and volunteers administered an automated external defibrillator to treat cardiac arrest, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Hodgkin, an author and local political and history expert, was taken to Maine Medical Center. He was originally listed in critical condition but by Tuesday he had been upgraded to satisfactory.

The retired political science professor is the author of several books, most of them pertaining to the history and politics of Lewiston.

His most recent, “Frontier to Industrial City: Lewiston Town Politics 1768-1863,” was published last month.

Hodgkin is a Lewiston native whose ancestors were among the original settlers of the town, according to his biography on Amazon.com. He received his doctorate at Duke University and immediately came back to Maine and began teaching at Bates.

Hodgkin is editor of Androscoggin History, the newsletter of the Androscoggin Historical Society and serves on Lewiston’s Historic Preservation Review Board. He also produced the history of Lewiston and the history of the city’s Kennedy Park found on the City’s Web site.

“He’s always been very good, even in retirement, about staying involved in politics, and Maine politics in particular,” McNulty said.

Hodgkin is a longtime Republican Party activist.

At Bates College on Tuesday, several of Hodgkin’s colleagues were just learning of his medical problems. Word spread quickly across the campus and several colleagues were checking on his condition Tuesday night.

Hodgkin is generally regarded as the man who built the Political Science Department and hired most of the current staff.

“He’s a dedicated teacher and a devoted colleague,” said political science professor William Corlett. “I certainly think of him as a meticulous researcher of local history in Lewiston.”

There was optimism about Hodgkin’s chances for a full recovery.

“He’s always impressed me as someone who is in terrific shape,” McNulty said. “He’s 69 but he doesn’t look it. He looks 50.”

Hodgkin finished Sunday’s half-marathon, a 13.1-mile race, in 1 hour, 55 minutes and 56 seconds, the Press Herald reported.

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