About Chris
Christopher L. Hodapp is the author of Freemasons For Dummies, the worldwide best-selling introduction to the Masonic fraternity, and the world's most popular Masonic news blog site. He is currently serving as President of the Masonic Library and Museum of Indiana.
Chris' second book, Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers, and the Secrets of Washington, D.C. was released in 2006 and was the basis of the History Channel program, 'Secrets of the Founding Fathers.'
He is also the co-author with Alice VonKannon of The Templar Code For Dummies and Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies. Their most recent joint projects have been RVs and Campers For Dummies, (2021) and RV Vacations For Dummies 7th ed. (2023).
Chris spent more than two decades in advertising as a commercial filmmaker with Dean Crow Productions in Indianapolis, photographing and editing close to 1,000 commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.
He joined the fraternity of Freemasonry in 1998. He is a Past Master of Broad Ripple Lodge No. 643 and Lodge Vitruvian No. 767; and a charter member of Schofield Lodge 1818 U.D. of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, Free & Accepted Masons. He is also a member of Internet Lodge No. 9659 in the Province of East Lancashire of the United Grand Lodge of England. Most recently, he has served as Worshipful Master of Indiana's Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research UD between 2019-21.
He is an honorary member of Vincennes Lodge 1, Plymouth-Kilwinning Lodge 149, Ancient Landmarks Lodge 319, Garfield Lodge 569, and Logan Lodge 575 in Indiana; Ancient York Lodge 89 in Nashua, NH; Goose & Gridiron Lodge 1717 in Ohio; African Lodge 459, Prince Hall Affiliation, in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Grand Lodge of New Mexico AF&AM.
Chris is a 33° Mason in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (NMJ), Indianapolis Valley. He is a founding member of Levant Preceptory, a medieval Knights Templar period recreation degree team in the York Rite, and in 2010, he was named a Knight Commander of the Temple by the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States. He is an officer of the Indiana College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, a Past Sovereign Master of Imhotep Council 434 of the Allied Masonic Degrees, a member of Shriners International at Indianapolis' Murat Shrine, and numerous other Masonic appendant organizations.
He has been a member of the Grand Lodge of Indiana's Technology, 200th Anniversary, Public Relations, Indiana Freemason magazine, and Masonic Education Committees, the Grand Lodge Historical Commission, and the Indianapolis Masonic Temple Board. In 2013, he was appointed as 'Grand Representative Near Indiana' for the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, and he currently serves as Chairman of the Foreign Fraternal Relations Committee. Chris has served nationally on the Masonic Renewal Committee of the Conference of Grand Master Masons of North America and the board of The Masonic Society.
In May 2018, the Grand Lodge of Indiana F&AM awarded Chris Hodapp the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor,
its premiere reward for service to the fraternity.
Chris received the Grand Master of Indiana's Award for distinguished service in bringing the Masonic Angel Fund program to Indiana in 2003; the President's Award from the Philalethes Society in 2003; the Distinguished Service Medal from the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of Indiana in 2006; and the Duane E. Anderson Excellence in Masonic Education Award from the Grand Lodge of Minnesota in 2006. In 2012, he received the James Royal Case Fellowship Award from the Masonic Lodge of Research of Connecticut No. 401. That same year, he was named as Friar No. 101 in the Society of Blue Friars, an honorary organzation exclusively comprised of Masonic authors.
Chris was a Founding Fellow of The Masonic Society and the founding Editor in Chief of The Journal of The Masonic Society.
He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith" by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions.
Chris has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, the Square, and numerous other publications. His paper, 'Indiana Freemasonry and the Ku Klux Klan,' appeared in Volume 26 of Heredom, the annual publication of the Scottish Rite Research Society. And between 2005-08, Chris wrote a monthly humor column for the Texas-based Living Natural First Magazine, 'A Pilgrim's Progress: True Tales of an Organic Greenhorn.'
In 2010, Hodapp and Alice VonKannon developed episodes for the History Channel program Brad Meltzer's Decoded, and they have contributed material on fraternalism, U.S. history, conspiracies, and secret societies for History, TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have appeared on National Public Radio, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, the American Heroes Channel, and the History Channel - most recently in 2024 on America's Book of Secrets and UnXplained with William Shatner.
Chris is an alumnus of Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indianapolis. He received his higher education at Indiana University, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, the University of Southern California, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.
In 2011, Hodapp ran for a seat on the Indianapolis City/County Council on the Libertarian ticket. He is a member of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust; the Heartland Film Festival; the Indiana Historical Society; the Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation; the U.S. Capitol Historical Society; the Alliance Française; the Intercollegiate Studies Institute; the Authors Guild; Airstream Club International; and a lifetime member of the Indiana Railway Museum, where he learned to drive a train before he could drive a car.
Chris and Alice have been married since 1978. They live in Indianapolis, Indiana when they aren't traveling the U.S., dazzling the citizenry and frightening the wildlife in their Airstream Flying Cloud.