J. Hunter Guthrie | |
|---|---|
 J. Hunter Guthrie in 1949 | |
| 42nd President of Georgetown University | |
| In office 1949–1952 | |
| Preceded by | Lawrence C. Gorman |
| Succeeded by | Edward B. Bunn |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1901-01-08)January 8, 1901 New York City, United States |
| Died | November 11, 1974(1974-11-11) (aged 73) |
| Resting place | Jesuit Community Cemetery |
| Education | |
| Awards | National Order of Honour and Merit |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | June 23, 1930 |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| School | Existentialism,logical positivism,analytic philosophy,scholasticism |
Joseph Hunter GuthrieSJ (January 8, 1901 – November 11, 1974) was an American academicphilosopher, writer,Jesuit, andCatholic priest. Born inNew York City, he entered theSociety of Jesus in 1917, and began his studies atWoodstock College. Following his undergraduate and graduate work there, he taught at Jesuit institutions in thePhilippines until 1927. Following hisordination in 1930, he receiveddoctorates intheology andphilosophy from thePontifical Gregorian University and theUniversity of Paris, respectively. He then returned to the United States, where he became a professor of philosophy at Woodstock College andFordham University.
In 1943, Guthrie became the chairman of graduate philosophy atGeorgetown University anddean of theGraduate School of Arts and Sciences. In this role, he admitted the first women to the school on equal terms as men. For twenty years, he promoted the belief that intellectuals must play a central role in combatting the ideologies that led toWorld War II. To that end, he was a member of the drafting committee of theUNESCO charter, was a co-founder of an American academy of Catholic intellectuals, and travelled the world with theU.S. State Department, for which he received honors from several countries and organizations.
Guthrie became thepresident of Georgetown University in 1949, and a major decision he made was to abolishthe university's football program, believing it to be inconsistent with the educational purpose of a Catholic university. He also oversaw construction ofMcDonough Gymnasium. His tenure ended abruptly in 1952, when he did not return at the start of the academic year. His resignation resulted from illness, as well as frustration with senior administrators who resisted his attempts to centralize governance of the university. In his later years, he taught atSaint Joseph's College inPhiladelphia, and died inWernersville, Pennsylvania, in 1974.
Joseph Hunter Guthrie was born on January 8, 1901, inNew York City, to parents Jacob Francis Guthrie and Mary Guthrie (née Ross). He enrolled atFordham Preparatory School in 1913, and graduated in 1917. On July 30 of that year, he entered theSociety of Jesus at thenovitiate ofSt. Andrew-on-Hudson. Guthrie began studying science andphilosophy atWeston College inMassachusetts,[1] and completed his undergraduate education atWoodstock College inMaryland, where he graduated in 1923 with aBachelor of Arts and in 1924 with aMaster of Arts.[2] Guthrie then taught English,Latin, andrhetoric at theseminary inVigan, in thePhilippines, from 1924 to 1925, and English, Latin, andeconomics at theAteneo de Manila University from 1925 to 1927.[2] He also coacheddrama at both the Vigan Seminary and Ateneo, which resulted in hisAteneo Passion Play being performed in 1927 at theManila Grand Opera House.[1]
Guthrie returned to Woodstock College that year, traveling through China, Japan, North Africa, and India on his return voyage. On June 23, 1930, he wasordained aCatholic priest at Woodstock.[1] He was then sent to thePontifical Gregorian University inRome, where he earned aDoctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1931.[2] He spent the following year studyingascetical theology at theDrongen Abbey and at theCatholic University of Louvain inBelgium.[1] On August 15, 1934, he professed hisfinal vows in theChapel of Saint Denis onMontmartre inParis, which were received byAnthony Joseph Schuler, theBishop of El Paso, Texas.[3]
Guthrie began work on his doctorate in philosophy,[4] studying at theUniversity of Berlin, theUniversity of Munich, theUniversity of Frieburg, and theUniversity of Paris.[2] During this time, he became ill withtuberculosis, which required that he be treated inAsheville, North Carolina. He then returned to the University of Paris to defend hisdissertation onphenomenology, for which he was awarded adocteur de l'université with highest honors in 1937.[1] During his time in Europe, Guthrie studied underMartin Heidegger,Werner Jaeger, andEmile Brédier, and was closely acquainted withEdith Stein,Simone Weil,Jacques Maritain, andÉtienne Gilson.[5] He was also in contact with theVienna Circle.[1] As a result, his philosophical interests were Germanexistentialism,logical positivism, andanalytic philosophy, the latter of which he studied a decade before it become prominent in American universities.[5]
Following his education, Guthrie taught philosophy at Woodstock College from 1937 to 1940. He became a professor and chairman of the department of graduate philosophy atFordham University in 1940, remaining in the position for three years. He was also an assistant editor ofThe Journal of Philosophy,Thought, andPhilosophy Abstracts, and was a prolific author.[2]
In 1943, Guthrie was appointed chairman of the graduate department of philosophy atGeorgetown University, which made himex officio thedean of theGraduate School of Arts and Sciences.[6] Later, he also was named the chairman of deans of the university.[4] During his term, the first eleven women were admitted to the graduate school on equal status as men.[a] The president of the university,Lawrence C. Gorman, described this action as initially experimental and as a "wartime concession" that proved successful.[8] Guthrie sought to revitalize the graduate school, and recruited prominent faculty who fled Europe duringWorld War II,[5] especially those in the fields of philosophy andpolitical science.[9]
The reputation and quality of academics in the graduate department of philosophy, which had a separate location and faculty from its undergraduate counterpart, was greatly improved during his term, and it was said that the graduate school "firmly established" itself for the first time.[6] Having succeeded Edward C. Phillips as dean, Guthrie was replaced by Gerard Yates.[10]
Following the end of World War II, Guthrie became a proponent of making academia a key instrument in securing futureworld peace by combating ideologies ofnationalism,totalitarianism, andscientific racism. To that end, he became a member of the U.S. Commission on Restructuring Education, which met atPrinceton University in 1940, alongside British academics, to implementdemocratic principles in education. He was also a member of the chartering committee ofUNESCO, which met inNice in 1945.[1]
Guthrie supported a proposal by several Catholic intellectuals to create an American academy for Catholic thought.[11] This occurred in the context of many Americanthink tanks and intellectual organizations, such as theCouncil on Foreign Relations, reevaluating their purposes and missions, so as to ensure that anotherworld war would never happen again.[12] The body's twofold mission would be "reconstructing Catholic intellectual life" in the aftermath of the war, and maintaining a "presence in the total work of the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization."[11] Guthrie envisioned the organization as being composed primarily of academiclaymen, rather than clergy.[13] Eventually, the academy came to fruition, and he became a co-founder of theCatholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (CCICA) in 1946. He was also a member of theAmerican Academy of Political and Social Science and theMedieval Academy of America.[1]
Guthrie was a prolific traveller, visiting every continent exceptAustralia. He traveled as an exchange specialist with theU.S. Department of State and theUnited States Information Agency to theIberian Peninsula andLatin America from 1947 to 1950.[14] He was a polyglot, being fluent in four languages and able to read in four more. Guthrie received the Grand Cross of theOrder of Civil Merit ofSpain in 1948 for his writings on the Spanish philosopherFrancisco Suárez, and lectures at theUniversity of Barcelona,University of Madrid, andUniversity of Salamanca. He received theFreedoms Foundation Award in 1950, theNational Order of Honour and Merit ofHaiti in 1954, and the Air University Award in 1958 for casting a tie-breaking vote to create theAir University. Film directorSamuel Bronston consulted with Guthrie in the 1950s on films set inAncient Greece andRome.[1]
On February 18, 1949, Guthrie was appointed to succeed Gorman as thepresident of Georgetown University.[15] Under his leadership,McDonough Gymnasium was built, with construction starting in 1950,[16] and the building opening in December 1951.[17] One of Guthrie's first actions was the revival of the board of regents in April 1949, whose purpose was to advise the president and participate in fundraising and promotion of the university.[18] Another of his primary goals was to centralize the university administration under the office of the president. At the time he took office, the schools ofmedicine,law, andforeign service operated close to autonomously in their governance, finances, and academics.[19]
Much of Guthrie'sphilosophy of education was motivated by his support forscholasticism.[1] He wrote against the modern conception ofacademic freedom as a "false liberty to license" that deprived students of the "divine dimension of reality". In this view, university-level education should teach students of thedivine revelation. At the same time, he advocated for the sort ofclassical education that existed in antiquity, although supplemented by modern science. In sum, he believed that modern thought had little to offer.[20]
Guthrie's presidency came to an end abruptly in 1952. In the summer of that year, he left forthe American West for aretreat and to fundraise. He did not return at the start of the academic year, prompting many rumors on campus. He submitted his resignation to theuniversity board of directors the following October, and it was announced that the Jesuit authorities in Rome had selectedEdward B. Bunn as his successor. One historian later determined that Guthrie's ousting was not entirely voluntary, but rather was due to a combination of factors. In July 1952, his health had begun to deteriorate; he moved in with his mother inAnnapolis, Maryland, and soon thereafter was treated at hospitals inBaltimore, Maryland andCharlotte, North Carolina. Additionally, he had become frustrated with the fact that each of the university professional schools was headed by a Jesuitregent. They vigorously opposed his attempts to centralize the administration of the university, and when Guthrie tried to invoke the authorities in Rome to support his effort, he felt that he did not have their backing.[21]
"Into football goes a stupendous outlay of time, money, and manpower, accompanied by the raw passions of greed and slavish devotion, the ignoble emotions of spite, bitterness, and sly cunning."
One major decision of Guthrie's presidency was to discontinueGeorgetown's football program in 1951. He offered multiple reasons for his decision, the first of which was that the sport contributed little to the educational purpose of the university and was unbecoming of a Catholic educational institution.[22] Financial considerations also motivated Guthrie. He disapproved thatcollegiate football had become "big business."[23] The sport consumed the vast majority of the university's entire sports budget, and, combined with ancillary costs of running the program, resulted in a substantial, annual net deficit. Moreover, the team had been performing poorly for many seasons.[24] As a result, Georgetown became the most prominent of 38 schools—many of them Catholic—to drop their football programs by 1951, and the university saw a gradual de-emphasis of sports in general. Guthrie's decision prompted a strong backlash from alumni, and the football program was restored 12 years later.[22]
Guthrie continued to suffer from the damage tuberculosis had done to his lungs. After spending time recuperating, he became a professor atSaint Joseph's College inPhiladelphia in 1953, and for a time, served as chair of the department of philosophy.[1] He was interested in people who learn differently and worked intensively with one student, who he identified as having alearning disability that science later would identify asdyslexia.[25] He also advocated for the creation of aLatin American studies program at Saint Joseph's, which was created in 1960.[1]
Guthrie assumed professoremeritus status at Saint Joseph's in 1969.[1] He died on November 11, 1974, at the Jesuit novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues inWernersville, Pennsylvania.[23] His body was returned to Georgetown University and was buried in theJesuit Community Cemetery.[26]
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edward C. Phillips | Dean of theGeorgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1943—1949 | Succeeded by Gerard Yates |
| Preceded by | 42ndPresident of Georgetown University 1949—1952 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
