Colleagues,
I’m writing with the sad news of the passing of James B. “Jim” Gutsell, Professor of English emeritus, was on faculty at Guilford for 36 years and played a critical role in the development of the Study Abroad and Honors Programs. Jim died July 26 in Greensboro.
A celebration of Jim's life will be held Sunday, Sept. 29, in the Carnegie Room of Hege Academic Commons on campus from 11 am to 2 pm.
In a minute of appreciation for Jim at his retirement in 1999, faculty colleagues Carol and John Stoneburner reflected on his time at the College. Excerpts from that tribute follow.
When Jim arrived at Guilford in 1963 it was very different than it is now. There were considerably fewer buildings. The campus was in the unincorporated community of Guilford College on the western edge of Greensboro and Friendly Avenue was a two-lane road. The College was just taking its first steps toward racial integration.
Under the leadership of President Grimsley Hobbs ’47 and others, a new curriculum was implemented, Quaker and faculty governance were established and the student body and faculty became more diverse. Jim was a key figure in the transformation. He was a nurturer of various innovations including a weekly evening faculty series on mythology that drew a large audience of faculty and students.
Jim was the second faculty member to lead our London semester, which was the beginning of the Study Abroad (now Global and Off-Campus Initiatives – GOCI) Program. He was instrumental in establishing the Honors Program and workshops that evolved into the Writing across the Curriculum Program. He was an English Renaissance scholar with a deep passion for Shakespeare. He acted in a Guilford theatre production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
By the Stoneburners’ calculation, he taught at least 1,620 different students in first year English courses over his career and read between 35-40,000 pages of prose that they wrote. (They called this mind-boggling grit and persistence.)
In retirement Jim was an accomplished potter and operated South Elm Pottery and Gallery in downtown Greensboro, where he had a studio and exhibited local artists, including Guilford faculty members.
Please join me in holding Jane Gutsell, his spouse, and their family and friends in the Light as they remember Jim’s life.
Sincerely,
Maria Rosales
Provost