Guthrie was born on South Main Street in Brattleboro at his parent's home in Aug. 3, 1939, delivered by a neighbor because the local doctor at the time was too drunk to work.

Among his earliest memories is his mother giving milk and sandwiches to the homeless, a tradition that has continued in his childhood home, now the location of the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center.

Guthrie was attracted to law enforcement at an early age. Two of his neighbors were Brattleboro police officers and he and other children looked up to both. One would pass his house in the mornings as he walked to the department, and Guthrie said he looked forward to walking with him.

"I was proud to walk with him to work," he recalled.

He knew by age 7 that he wanted to be a police officer. He followed the crime beat published in the local newspaper closely and created diagrams and notes tracking criminals and illegal incidents in the town. Dick Tracy, the familiar detective in the yellow coat, was his favorite comic strip.

"I made sure I stayed out of trouble in high school," he said. "And then when I was 21, because I had a good relationship with the Brattleboro Police officers, I joined the department."

That led to a career several decades long in local law enforcement. Guthrie worked the night shift as a patrol officer with Brattleboro Police for 13 years before becoming the juvenile officer. He served briefly as interim chief in 1984 and then spent several more years as a detective and captain in the department.

He left Brattleboro Police for the Windham County Sheriff's Department, where he oversaw security at Stratton Mountain. His career briefly led him to the Vernon Police Department before returning to his home town, where he served as police chief from 1996 to 2001.

"He took me under his wing and taught me a lot," said Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin, who took over after Guthrie retirement five years ago. "He's a person of very high integrity and someone that people look up to."

Guthrie said he is a strong supporter of community policing and believes one of the most important things a police officer can do is walk his beat on a regular basis. Law enforcement cannot stop the desire to cause crime, he said, but they can take away the opportunity by making themselves visible.

-- Brattleboro Reformer