Wiley C Guthrie

Wiley C Guthrie, 92, of Clemmons, NC, died Monday, January 4, 2016, at Wake Forest Baptist Health. He was born in Salisbury, NC, on July 30, 1923, to the late Jean Deal Guthrie and Tonley R. Guthrie. He spent his childhood years in Salisbury, graduating from Boyden High School. On August 25, 1943, he married Margaret Christine Woodford of Salisbury. He served in the US Army during World War II, first in the Pacific Theatre as a paratrooper for the 11th Airborne, and later in post-war Japan. He returned to NC to enter Wake Forest College in 1948 and was the first student to enroll in Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on the old Wake Forest Campus in 1952. While in Seminary, he served as a student pastor at several Baptist churches in eastern NC. After completing his theological studies, he entered the US Air Force and served for the next twenty-two years as a chaplain, retiring in 1976. That fall he established a new Hospital Chaplaincy program in Vincennes, Indiana, before returning to NC in 1978 where he served as Pastor of Union Hill Baptist Church in Clemmons for ten years. Wiley and Margaret supported Wake Forest Divinity School with the establishment of the Martha Joyce Guthrie Scholarship Fund. The fund memorializes their daughter, Joyce, who died in infancy while Wiley was an undergraduate at Wake Forest. Since 2005 the scholarship fund has aided over 20 students. Wiley was an avid Wake Forest football fan, attending all of the home games for the last sixteen years. Chaplain Guthrie was a faithful member of Knollwood Baptist Church where he taught in the Roddick Sunday school class for a number of years. There will be a private family burial at Rowan Memorial Park in Salisbury, NC. A memorial service will be held at Knollwood Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC, on Friday, January 8, 2016, at 2:00 p.m., led by Dr. Bob Setzer, Jr. Chaplain Guthrie is survived by his children, Elizabeth G. Sides (Richard) of Winston-Salem, Faye G. Simmons (Leroy) of Swannanoa, NC, and David B. Guthrie (Amy) of Winston-Salem; his eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and a brother, Norman Guthrie of Bakersville, NC. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Martha Joyce Guthrie Scholarship Fund at the Wake Forest University Divinity School, PO Box 7719, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, or to Knollwood Baptist Church, 330 Knollwood St., Winston-Salem, NC, 27104.

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