Timeless Faculty

On June 1, 1985, with a yellow legal pad and black marker in hand, the late Vernon “Dan” McGrew began the emotionally difficult task of listing the breadth and depth of his longtime friend and colleague’s work at Marietta College.

At the top of the first page, McGrew ’49, the former College historian and administrator, wrote, “An amplification on Ray Guthrie…”

Five years earlier, it was McGrew who had written a touching speech dedicated to Emeritus Professor of Education Raymond Guthrie, and his retired educator wife, Ethel Straw Guthrie, to bestow the two with Honorary Alumni statuses during the 1980 Homecoming celebration. “The Alumni Association has co-winners for this recognition, and no wonder,” McGrew said during the awards ceremony. “Like other famous twosomes — ham and eggs, scotch and soda, Scarlett and Rhett — ours is a prize-winning pair from any perspective.”

In a 1928 letter to William Allen, president of Lafayette College, Marietta College President Edward Parsons asked about the teaching ability of a young alumnus of that Pennsylvania liberal arts college who was interested a one-year teaching position in the Mathematics Department.

“(He) is a little man with a good head on his shoulders,” Allen replied. “He is a competent mathematician and is prepared in mechanical drawing. He knows of the mathematics of surveying and could get experience in fieldwork in our summer school for engineers. He is a man of excellent character and unusual industry and dependability.”

And with that, the young John Sandt was hired as an instructor of mathematics at Marietta College for the 1928-29 academic year.

Marietta College was the perfect place for this professor to pursue his two passions in life: history and baseball.