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ROBERT ERNEST GUTHRIE, JR “BOB” passed away on December 28, 2025, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday, in the presence of his loving family. Bob was born in Jacksonville, Florida to Pauline and his father, Robert Ernest Guthrie, Sr. Bob’s twin sisters, Ann and Sue, were three years younger. As a child and youth called “Ernie”, Bob spent days and dinners with his beloved aunt “Sister” who worked at a shelter for homeless men in Jacksonville. “Sister” also hosted family summers in North Carolina and encouraged Bob to attend Carson Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. During Bob’s senior year in college, Ann was a freshman and thrilled that her BMOC, Homecoming King, Floridian brother disguised her in boy’s clothing in order to break curfew for girls so she could join him sledding for the first time. After graduation, Bob entered and graduated from the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School in his words “to see the world” although most of what saw was the U.S. east coast and Pacific islands. He loved the Navy and planned to make it his life-long career. But one night in Boston on leave from his ship in Newport, Rhode Island, he met Jane Danielson, a young physical therapy graduate student from Kansas. They both were smitten. They married in 1963 and alternated between Newport and New York City, depending on his ship duties. When Jane was pregnant with Robert III, Bob began the process of leaving the Navy, becoming an Admiral’s assistant in Washington, D.C.. After the U.S. Navy honorably discharged Bob, he moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts with Jane, who had wanted to become a Bostonian ever since working on Cape Cod one summer in college. Daughter, Dana, was born two years later. Bob began in Massachusetts working for Raytheon, but then he became business manager of the Boston law firm, Sullivan & Worcester, until a Philadelphia firm recruited him to be Executive Director. Bob and Jane moved to Villanova in 1989, and Dunwoody Village in 2023. Bob was a sharp businessman and firms thrived under his leadership. He moved Woodcock Washburn, Kurtz, Mackiewicz & Norris from Center City to become an anchor corporation at the Cira Centre in West Philly. Bob was a visionary, introducing programs to give summer internships to youth from inner-city schools and to hire support workers who had cognitive impairments. Bob loved Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church where he was a Church Elder and served on personnel and restructuring committees. He and Jane traveled with the church to Brazil, Cuba, Hungary, Russia, and South Africa. Upon retirement, he started delivering church-made casseroles to a West Philly public school until the teacher asked if he’d consider becoming a volunteer tutor. Bob was thrilled to assist in class. “The teacher is a smart, tough boss. I do anything she says,” reported the retired Executive Director. Through the church, he was also pleased to support Broad Street Ministries (renamed Broad Street Love), helping people who are unhoused in downtown Philadelphia. Bob loved traveling the world with Jane. He also cherished time by the water on family vacations on Cape Cod and Nantucket when his kids were growing up, and later in Blue Hill and Acadia, Maine with grown children, their partners and his grandchildren Alannah and Liam from daughter Dana. A perfect day was children and grandchildren hiking and exploring, Bob and Jane walking and appreciating the water, then in the afternoon everyone reconvening for popovers at the Jordan Pond House. When asked if he could have dinner with any three people from human history, Bob immediately replied Winston Churchill, Osceola (Florida’s defiant Seminal warrior chief of the 1800’s), and best friend, Paul Beatty, who had passed and once helped launch his career at Sullivan & Worcester. Bob Jr. is predeceased by his parents, Bob Sr. and Pauline, his aunt “Sister”, sister Sue Caputo, and nephew Thomas Turner. He is survived by his wife Jane, children Robert III (Kent), Dana (Sean), grandchildren Liam and Alannah McNally, and by his sister Ann (Tick) Turner, niece Lisa, and great-niece Dr. Lorelei Pentifallo. To honor and celebrate Bob’s life, smile and impact, a Memorial Service will be held on Monday, February 16, 2025, 11:00AM in the chapel of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in honor of Bob to The Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/; The American Civil Liberties Union, https://action.aclu.org/give/make-gift-aclu-honor-someone-special; or Broad Street Love, https://broadstreetlove.org/.

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Robert Ernest Guthrie Jr

January 30, 1936 - December 28, 2025