Deanship In 1943, Guthrie was appointed chairman of the graduate department of philosophy at
Georgetown University, which made him
ex officio the
dean of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Later, he also was named the chairman of deans of the university. Guthrie sought to revitalize the graduate school, and recruited prominent faculty who fled Europe during
World War II, 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.
Worldwide academic advocacy Following the end of World War II, Guthrie became a proponent of making academia a key instrument in securing future
world peace by combating ideologies of
nationalism,
totalitarianism, and
scientific racism. To that end, he became a member of the U.S. Commission on Restructuring Education, which met at
Princeton University in 1940, alongside British academics, to implement
democratic principles in education. He was also a member of the chartering committee of
UNESCO, which met in
Nice in 1945. This occurred in the context of many American
think tanks and intellectual organizations, such as the
Council on Foreign Relations, reevaluating their purposes and missions, so as to ensure that another
world war would never happen again. 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." Eventually, the academy came to fruition, and he became a co-founder of the
Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (CCICA) in 1946. He was also a member of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science and the
Medieval Academy of America. He was a polyglot, being fluent in four languages and able to read in four more. Guthrie received the Grand Cross of the
Order of Civil Merit of
Spain in 1948 for his writings on the Spanish philosopher
Francisco Suárez, and lectures at the
University of Barcelona,
University of Madrid, and
University of Salamanca. He received the
Freedoms Foundation Award in 1950, the
National Order of Honour and Merit of
Haiti in 1954, and the Air University Award in 1958 for casting a tie-breaking vote to create the
Air University. Film director
Samuel Bronston consulted with Guthrie in the 1950s on films set in
Ancient Greece and
Rome. Under his leadership,
McDonough Gymnasium was built, with construction starting in 1950, and the building opening in December 1951. 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. 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 of
medicine,
law, and
foreign service operated close to autonomously in their governance, finances, and academics. Much of Guthrie's
philosophy of education was motivated by his support for
scholasticism. Guthrie's presidency came to an end abruptly in 1952. In the summer of that year, he left for
the American West for a
retreat and to fundraise. He did not return at the start of the academic year, prompting many rumors on campus. He submitted his resignation to the
university board of directors the following October, and it was announced that the Jesuit authorities in Rome had selected
Edward 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 in
Annapolis, Maryland, and soon thereafter was treated at hospitals in
Baltimore, Maryland and
Charlotte, North Carolina. Additionally, he had become frustrated with the fact that each of the university professional schools was headed by a Jesuit
regent. 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.
Abolition of football One major decision of Guthrie's presidency was to discontinue
Georgetown'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. Financial considerations also motivated Guthrie. He disapproved that
collegiate football had become "big business." 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. == Later years ==