OF GRAVE INTEREST

LIKE A HARE ON AN ADRENALINE RUSH, Russ Dodge bounds from grave to grave at historic Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. The clamor of distant traffic on highways along the Schuylkill River fails to distract the south New Jersey native as he delivers bursts of information about a Civil War veteran at the well-manicured, 78-acre grounds. “Look at this place,” he says of the National Historic Landmark site, founded in 1836. “You could stand anywhere and within 15 feet is a story.”

Dodge is dressed in his typical cemetery tour guide attire: blue jeans, blue Villanova University pullover, and funky red Converse sneakers. His shoulder-length hair gives him a slight 1960s vibe. Intensely interested in American history and the Civil War in particular, Dodge became a Laurel Hill tour guide in 2008.

For years, Dodge had traveled to cemeteries from Maine to Texas to visit