Biographical Text
Professor Emeritus of Economics William (Bill) Guthrie (June 25, 1948-) was born in Detroit, Michigan, the only child of Kathryn Synder (1912-1991) and William G. Guthrie, Jr. (1913-1962). Guthrie graduated from Waterford-Kettering High School, Waterford, Michigan, in 1966. He enlisted in the United States Army in January of1967. After basic infantry training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, he was assigned to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey in California (where Special Operations' Forces receive instruction in foreign languages). For nine months, he underwent an extensive study of Czech, the native language of his maternal grandparents and great-grandparents. After graduation from the Defense Language Institute, Guthrie was transferred to the Defense Department's communications intelligence school at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. Upon completion of training, he was assigned to a United States Army Security Agency Field Station in the Federal Republic of Germany. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred t o a remote detachment near the border of West Germany and Czechoslovakia, where he served for the majority of the remaining thirty months of his tour. Between July of 1971 and December of 1973, Guthrie completed his undergraduate studies (graduating magna cum laude) and also six hours of graduate credit, first at Oakland Community College and finally at Western Michigan University. Upon graduation from Western, he accepted a position as a Traffic Engineering Assistant at the (then) General Telephone Company of Michigan. There, a co-worker arranged a blind date for Guthrie with Rose Elizabeth Bursey. After a brief courtship and engagement, they were married in August of 1975.They set up housekeeping in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where they both pursued graduate studies at Western Michigan-Mrs. Guthrie in library science and Dr. Guthrie in economics and statistics. The experience of teaching micro-economics to legally blind students motivated Guthrie to set his sights on a doctoral degree in economics and a career in college teaching. During the summer of 1976, the couple moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mrs. Guthrie completed her Master of Library Science degree (1977) and worked at a variety of jobs to support her husband during his four years in the doctoral program in economics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Upon provisional acceptance of his thesis in 1980, Guthrie obtained an appointment as assistant professor of economics at Appalachian State University. He remained at Appalachian for nearly nineteen years, teaching a variety of courses in economics and business statistics and publishing some thirty-seven articles, comments and reviews in professional journals. He also served on the College of Business Honors Committee and its Graduate Curriculum Committee;the Chancellor's Scholarship Committee; and, the University's Humanities Committee in addition to performing numerous committee assignments within the Economics Department. Guthrie's two major research interests involved understanding the works of John Maynard Keynes and evaluating the philosophical foundations of the various methodologies employed by professional economists. He was an active member in the Southern Economic Association, the Atlantic Economic Association, and the History of Economics Society; he frequently served as an anonymous referee for the articles submitted to the journals of these organizations. He also served as the corporate treasurer for the First Presbyterian Church of Boone for an eighteen-month period.In December of 1998, Guthrie retired from the University of North Carolina system and spent the next year consulting, serving as an interim assistant financial manager for the Watauga County Children's Council (a member of the North Carolina Partnership for Children), and completing Duke University's certification program in Not-for-Profit Management. In the spring of 2000, he returned to the classroom as an adjunct professor of economics, finance, and accounting at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina. He was appointed to a full-time position as visiting professor of business and economics at Lees-McRae, beginning in the fall of 2001.In October 2002, Dr. Guthrie was appointed professor emeritus at Appalachian State University, truly a capstone honor that he will proudly cite as he moves on to new appointments.Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. -Kathy C. Deas
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