Home Care In Guthrie, NC

Bobby Guthrie, whose versatile athletic career spans more than five decades, has joined the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame staff as Associate Executive Director.

Guthrie, an Alamance County native, is a former college baseball player and coach who served as Wake County Public School System Senior Administrator for Athletics and Driver Education from 1994 until his retirement in 2013.

“Bobby will play a vital role in the development and implementation of programs that will have a positive impact on the youngsters in our state,” said Don Fish, Executive Director of the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame, who has guided the Hall’s expansion the last eight years. “We encourage youth around the state to become achievers who are inspired by our Hall of Fame members.”

Guthrie is a big achiever.

During his tenure directing Wake County Public School System athletics, Guthrie’s accomplishments included creating a high school athletic manual, revising the middle school athletic manual, and establishing sportsmanship education and cheerleading education programs.

On the athletic field, Guthrie starred in baseball at Southern Alamance High School and at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player — gaining second team honors in 1972 and making the first team in 1974.

He also collected UNC’s Most Valuable Player award in 1974 and the Best Hustle honor in 1973. Guthrie has never stopped hustling.

As a baseball coach, his highlights include winning a State 4-A championship in 1977 at Scotland County High. He also served as head coach for nine years at UNC-Wilmington, where he won North Carolina Coach of the Year honors in 1990.

Along the way, Guthrie has garnered numerous athletic and education awards, among them are induction into six halls of fame: National Interscholastic Athletic Administration Association, N.C. Athletic Directors, N.C. High School Association, Wake County Public School System, George Whitfield Clinic, and Southern Alamance High School.

In 2010 Guthrie was named National Federation High School Coach and Educator of the Year, when he became the organization’s first accredited interscholastic coach.

He is currently focused on his new position with the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

“This is a way to continue [in sports] and contribute,’’ Guthrie said. “Being involved with all these associations puts me in a position to help the Hall.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro pilot is recovering after a plane crashed in a small New Jersey neighborhood.

In an exclusive interview, ABC 45 spoke with the pilot of that plane, Zach Guthrie, who's now on his way back to Greensboro, after walking away from a crash that could have easily been deadly.

"I travel for a living and it was just another day to go to work," Guthrie said.

In the last year, Guthrie has operated 140 flights, so he was very familiar with the 2006 Mooney hew flew to New Jersey.

But the pilot's business trip didn't quite go as planned.

"When I got down, I realized I had a tailwind," he said. "It pushed me further down the runway, the wheels touched once and touched the second time, I applied the brakes and realized that I was too far down the runway and that's when I applied full power to go around."

The plane clipped a tree and went down into a street in a neighborhood in Manville, just a block over from the Central Jersey Regional Airport.

"It took an electrical wire down and whenever the plane stopped, the airbag in my seatbelt deployed and that is one of the main things that saved my life," Guthrie said.

"I went outside to see what was going on and all my neighbors go, we have no electricity, so my one neighbors came in the back and said oh, there's a plane crash," said Donna Schultz, a neighbor who lives nearby.

Guthrie said the wind power was more dangerous than he expected.

"Whenever I crashed, the plane had a small fire in the front, and so I quickly exited the plane as fast as I could."

That's when Guthrie was transported to a local hospital in the area, suffering from cuts to the head and hands, major bleeding and a left ankle sprain.

"It was a very violent landing, and I do believe that the good Lord has me here for some other reason or some other purpose," Guthrie told ABC 45.

He says he's just grateful he's alive and nobody else got hurt.

He thanks the community and various agencies in New Jersey and Greensboro for supporting him all the way through.

"My phone has been like a Christmas tree, as far as people calling and texting and well wishing, expressing any kind of things they can help me," Guthrie said.

Now, the pilot says there is a video circulating on YouTube showing the cockpit of the plane approaching to land, but he says that video is fraudulent and wants folks to be aware.

For now, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the crash and what went wrong.

As far as career milestones go, it’s going to be hard for David Guthrie to top Game 2 of the NBA Finals last year, when he became one of only 14 active NBA referees to get that assignment. On a strictly personal level, officiating Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte will come close, because Guthrie’s ties to the state and the area run deep.

Guthrie, 44, who played baseball at N.C. State and married a Wolfpack tennis player from Charlotte, the former Laura Cowman, is also a once and future Charlotte resident. They are living in Hilton Head now but plan to move back after the season, which makes this essentially a home game for him.

“I was very excited about that, being close to family and friends,” Guthrie said. “All our family’s there. It’s going to be a real neat weekend. I have three kids, 13, 11 and 8, and they will be ripping and running, having a good time, running around, doing what kids do at sporting events. That’ll be fun for them. It should be a great weekend. It’s just an honor to work it and be a part of it.”

Guthrie’s path to becoming a full-time NBA official took plenty of detours, but always seemed to point in this direction. His late father was the basketball coach at Georgia before becoming head of basketball officiating for the SEC, and while Guthrie’s athletic future appeared to be in baseball, he was a basketball player as well in high school.

He played one year of baseball at N.C. State in 1995 after two years at a junior college in his native Alabama, a smooth-fielding, switch-hitting shortstop. After being drafted in the 26th round by the Cincinnati Reds, Guthrie played parts of five seasons in the Reds’ organization, making it as far as Double-A before realizing his future lay elsewhere.

He had been officiating basketball games in the winter, and by the time his baseball prospects were dwindling, his basketball prospects were improving. Guthrie took a job selling class rings for Herff Jones and officiated both minor-league and college basketball games, including the NCAA tournament.

“His dad was our supervisor, so we came up going to camps together and starting out in junior college, Division II, small Division I,” said college official Tim Clougherty, who broke into officiating with Guthrie. “Because we lived in Raleigh, his dad would send David and me out for 7-10 days at a time and we’d work six or eight games in that time period, what his dad used to call ‘swings.’ We’d hit UNC-Pembroke on the way down to Florida or Georgia and then on back.”

Clougherty said even then, while they worked their way up, Guthrie’s focus was entirely on the NBA. That was Guthrie’s dream even before he attended a camp run by two NBA officials that only honed his interest in the pro game. When he got the chance to work more minor-league games, he took it.

“The NBA is constantly scouting, looking for prospects, people they feel like they can put into their minor-league system and work with and develop, potentially become NBA referees,” Guthrie said. “It’s a long process. When I first went to that camp and was exposed to some of that teaching, breaking down video, being around some of the guys who were NBA referees, it really sparked my interest, amazingly.”

After four years in the CBA and what was then known as the D-League, Guthrie was hired onto the full-time NBA staff of 70 officials in 2005. For friends at N.C. State who knew him as a baseball player, Guthrie’s current visibility is a little surreal.

“It is unique to see somebody out there you know so well, dealing with all those frustrations of guys in an NBA game yell at him,” said Kevin Creech, an N.C. State classmate who still plays golf with Guthrie regularly. “You spend so much time with someone and hang out, and then they’re on TV.”

Last May, Guthrie received the usual email from NBA supervisor Monty McCutchen, listing the 12 officials selected to work the first four games of the finals based on their performance throughout the playoffs. After 13 years in the league, his name was on it. Under Game 2, the three names listed: Mike Callahan, David Guthrie, Derrick Stafford. Guthrie was the only first-timer on the crew, with Callahan and Stafford having worked a combined 26 finals games.

“It’s what we work for,” Guthrie said. “All the games, all the hours you put in, to reach that level.”

A finals game is different than anything else, even the conference finals. The commissioner comes in to say hello. It’s a special occasion and a special responsibility for the officials. And there was even more pressure than usual after some late-game controversy in Game 1.

Golden State won, at home, 122-103, in a game notable for only one minor officiating kerfuffle, a technical foul on Cleveland coach Ty Lue after an apparent trip on LeBron James went uncalled. After it was over, McCutchen came into their locker room: “Great game, now you’re done,” he joked.

Guthrie did get a coveted finals ring at the preseason banquet for officials this fall, and he did get the call for the next All-Star Game. Guthrie worked the Saturday night events at the All-Star Game in Dallas in 2010, but this is a higher honor. And a home game.

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February 13, 2019 11:07 PM

This story was originally published February 14, 2019, 5:13 PM.

Dot Guthrie didn’t go to school as a young child, but that didn’t stop her from devoting herself to education and literature.

“My parents were sharecroppers and I had to stay home to work the cotton in the fields or to care for my younger siblings,” said the school board member, author, museum curator and retired librarian. “But I was still motivated to learn.”

The American Literature Association recently named Guthrie as the 2021 recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Presented every two years in memory of the beloved children’s author, the American Literature Association presents the Hamilton award to practitioners who actively engage youth through African-American literature and reading activities.

Guthrie’s lack of schooling in her youth inspired her to get in school whenever the opportunity would finally come.

She finally got in school and would graduate from not only from Roosevelt High School in Clover, South Carolina, but also South Carolina State College. Especially when learning new facets of African-American heritage, she was always left striving for more.

But Guthrie didn’t want students to miss out the way she did. That’s why she devoted her 38-year career – mostly spent in Gaston County Schools’ libraries and classrooms – promoting the importance of reading to children.

She continues serving students through various programs at the African-American Museum of History & Culture at Loray Mill and her membership on the Gaston County Board of Education.

“I didn’t want anyone else, regardless of his or her socioeconomic background, to grow up unaware of the importance of reading and being able to connect, as well as relate, to people that look like them, as far as African-Americans,” Guthrie said.

“As far as literacy, I think every child should have windows open to them so that they can use their imagination and creativity to travel anywhere in the world they want, even if their parents can’t afford to take them there,” she continued.

In a recommendation letter on Guthrie’s behalf, Gaston County Schools Superintendent Jeff Booker wrote that Guthrie’s advocacy, passion and crystal-clear focus on the classroom makes her a strong leader and a valuable asset to the school district and community.

“Every superintendent of schools would love to work with someone like Mrs. Guthrie,” Booker wrote.

“Author, speaker, and pastor John C. Maxwell once said, ‘a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.’ Without a doubt in our minds, Mr. Maxwell could have written this quote about Mrs. Guthrie.”

Guthrie learned in late January that she would receive the library association’s lifetime achievement award. For her name to be associated with an award in memory of Hamilton – the author of one of Guthrie’s favorite books, “The House of Dies Drear” – was and remains an overwhelming feeling, she said.

The fictional yet historical novel tells the story of a man, Dies Drear, who accommodated runaway slaves who embarked on the Underground Railroad. Guthrie has always associated the book with people in her life who might help her reach her goals, she said.

“Virginia Hamilton was one of my favorite authors,” Guthrie said. “And certainly when I was called that Sunday afternoon and [learned] I was the recipient, I immediately went right back to ‘The House of Dies Drear.’”

Rather than ending the book at this point, the recently re-elected school board member plans to keep writing the story. Her current term expires in 2024.

When she’s not in the board room, you’ll find Guthrie working on future programs at the African American Museum at Loray Mill.

You can reach reporter Gavin Stewart at 704-869-1819 or on Twitter @GavinGazette.

Gastonia's African American Museum of History and Culture will unveil a Black history quilt and coloring book for a Black History Month program Sunday.

"It's the museum's role to get this information out to the children," said Dot Guthrie, the founder and curator for the museum located at Loray Mill in Gastonia.

The Black History Month program starts at 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 6, at the museum, located on the second floor of the Loray Mill at 300 Firestone St.

Guthrie says the program’s main purpose includes unveiling a Black history quilt and Black history coloring book to educate Gaston County students.

“It’s a historic quilt full of pioneers in Gaston County,” said Guthrie, who is also a member of the Gaston County school board. “It’s almost highlighting the ‘Black Wall Street’ of Gaston County.”

The quilt was made by the African American Quilt Guild of Gaston County and will be kept at the museum. Gaston County Schools partnered with Guthrie to invest in teaching guides for the quilt.

Guthrie says that 500 teaching guides were made for any teacher within the county to have and include in their curriculums.

“The front of the guide is made with the same material as the quilt,” said Guthrie. “It explains every photo on the quilt.”

Guthrie wants everyone to come out and see who will be highlighted on the quilt Sunday.

She will also present a coloring book that includes Black history illustrations for adults and youth to color.

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“We know that a lot of adults know this information but they can teach it to their children with the coloring book activity,” said Guthrie.

The Gaston Arts Council commissioned artists for drawing the illustrations which included Wanda Meekins, who also serves on the Gaston County Art Guild.

The program also includes the singing of "Lift Every Voice," often referred to as the Negro national anthem, by Gastonia native Maria Howell, who was also the choir soloist in the film, “The Color Purple.”

Gaston County leaders like Mayor Walker Reid, Mayor Pro Tem David Kirlin, County Commissioner Allen Fraley and School Superintendent Jeffrey Booker will be present at the program.

The grandson of the first Black doctor in Gastonia, Caroll Saunders, will also attend the program. The Erwin Center was named after his grandfather, the late Dr. Herbert J. Erwin Sr.

Guthrie believes that enlightening the community on Black history will help others to learn about communities that they may not be familiar with.

“Every county should be doing this because it teaches about people who paved the way,” said Guthrie. “No matter what your ethnicity is, we want everyone to grow up in a diverse community.”

The quilt and coloring books are free. The program will also be free to attend.

Guthrie invites guests to make donations to the museum to help fund its creative educational efforts.

Those who attend will receive a coloring book and a learning guide.

If interested, guests may reach out to the museum for a coloring book and guide at 980-888-4005.

Reach Janiya Winchester at 704-869-1842 or [email protected]