He attended The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and then Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude.

[1] In 1958, Guthrie was a senior partner in Mudge, Steen, Baldwin and Todd, the legal counsel in the United States for Daimler Benz.

John N. Mitchell was another partner in the law firm, to be appointed United States Attorney General by Nixon after he was elected president in 1968.

However John A. Volpe, Secretary of Transportation, insisted that the railroad dismiss Guthrie due to the political risk if the tie to Nixon became public.

[1] His son, Randolph "Bob" Guthrie, became a plastic surgeon, and was one of the two inventors of the standard procedure for reconstructive breast surgery.