Richard Wayne Guthrie

Legislator

(Mar. 19, 1926-Apr. 14, 1993). Born in Indianapolis, Richard Wayne Guthrie graduated from Thomas Carr Howe High School. He received a bachelor of science degree from the Indiana University School of Business in 1949 and graduated from the IU School of Law four years later. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.

Three people stand behind and two people are seated at garden furniture in a yard. — *Richard Guthrie (standing third from the left), at the Indianapolis Recorder Women Sponsors annual tea, 1984* **Credit:** Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society View Source

Long active in Republican Party politics, Guthrie was a precinct committeeman, ward chairman, and a delegate to the GOP state convention in 1950 and 1952. He served as Marion County Probate Court clerk from 1950 to 1952, becoming assistant commissioner in 1953.

Elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1955 and 1957, Guthrie lost his seat in the 1958 election. He won his seat back in 1960 and, with the Republicans controlling the chamber, announced his candidacy for the speaker’s post. Guthrie ran against James D. Allen, a former House speaker, and Ralph W. Waltz. With Allen dropping from the race after the fourth ballot, Guthrie defeated Waltz by a 33 to 29 count on the subsequent ballot.

With his election, the 35-year-old Guthrie became the second-youngest person to hold the speaker’s post in Indiana General Assembly history. He ran unopposed for the same position in 1963, his last term in the legislature.

Following his legislative career, Guthrie became a partner in the Indianapolis law firm of Stewart, Irwin, Gilliom, Fuller & Meyer. He also lobbied the General Assembly on behalf of the Indiana Association of Certified Public Accountants, the American Mutual Insurance Alliance, and the Indiana State Medical Association.

Elected to the Indianapolis Public Schools Board of Commissioners in 1980, Guthrie served as its president from 1982-1983 and again from 1992-February 1993. He also presided over the debates about the Select Schools initiative, which then-superintendent Shirl Gilbert initiated, allowing parents to select which school they wanted their children to attend within the district.

RAY BOOMHOWER (1994)

Revised February 2021

KEY WORDS

LawPolitics

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