Robert V. Guthrie

Robert Val Guthrie (February 14, 1932 – November 6, 2005) was an American psychologist and educator described by the American Psychological Association as "one of the most influential and multifaceted African-American scholars of the century."

Personal life

Robert Val Guthrie was born in Chicago on February 14, 1932, but moved to Lexington, Kentucky, when his father became the principal at Dunbar High School.

While stationed at Sampson Air Force Base during his military service in the 1950s, Guthrie met his wife, Elodia Sexton, a nursing student from Guatemala. They married, and went on to have one daughter and five sons together. Guthrie died on November 6, 2005, from brain cancer.

Legacy

In the spring of 2001, Guthrie became the first African-American to have his papers included in the National Archives of American Psychology in Akron, OH. The archive's director, David Baker, PhD, said about Guthrie: "We know almost nothing about the development of psychology at historically black colleges and universities, and only Bob Guthrie's work examines this in detail." Regarding Even the Rat Was White, he stated that the book is "an excellent piece of historiography that offers a good, hard look at racism in the development of psychology," and that without it, many of the profiled Black psychologists might have been forgotten. The American Psychological Association described Guthrie as "one of the most influential and multifaceted African-American scholars of the century."

In a tribute written after his passing, the American Psychological Association credited him as a valuable mentor in academia and a caring clinician, going on to say that through his work, "the possibility of a truly inclusive psychology was brought closer to realization," and that his work was key to "helping psychology to recognize its shortcomings, and in moving it toward becoming a more open, diverse, and relevant discipline for all."