This is not the first recognition of Gutman\u2019s work in her areas of research, which include, but are not limited to, seniors housing, health promotion, elder abuse, LGBTQ+ aging, age-friendly hospitals and communities, and advance care planning. She has been awarded the Order of British Columbia and a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and been appointed to the Order of Canada, the country\u2019s highest civilian honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really feel grateful for the opportunities that SFU gave me, and the honorary degree in particular \u2013 universities very seldom honour their own,\u201d she told the Independent<\/i> in a recent interview. \u201cUsually, if you look at who are the recipients of honorary degrees, it\u2019s people from elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost as a proof of point, Gutman received an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Ontario in 2010 for her work \u201cas an international authority in the field of gerontology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the appreciation for such awards is that they highlight her field, said Gutman. \u201cThat\u2019s the important thing for me, that it puts the word gerontology, or aging, or the concepts that I\u2019ve worked on, or areas that I\u2019ve tried to work on, brings them forward, gives them visibility. So, the honours are really a way of continuing to promote the organizations, the academic units, that I work for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laurel Weldon, the dean of SFU\u2019s faculty of arts and social sciences, which includes the gerontology department, has known Gutman for a few years. \u201cBut,\u201d Weldon told the JI<\/i>, \u201cI first heard her on the radio being interviewed about Martha Stewart\u2019s cover for Sports Illustrated<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, Stewart became the oldest model to be featured on the magazine\u2019s cover. In her convocation address last month, Gutman expressed the goal of a future of \u201caging without ageism,\u201d which \u201cinvolves making assumptions about a person\u2019s abilities, values or role in society based solely on age rather than their individual characteristics.\u201d<\/p>\n
While their research areas overlap, including on gender and age discrimination, Weldon said, \u201cthe real way I\u2019ve got to know Gloria has been as dean of the faculty in which she is a very active retired faculty member, applying for grants, running conferences, giving me her input and background on the department of gerontology and the Gerontology Research Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time the JI<\/i> reached Gutman for a 10 a.m. Zoom interview on June 18, she had already been a panelist in an international webinar on witchcraft (in the larger context of financial abuse of the elderly) and attended a webinar on the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. It was a typical start to the day for Gutman, who was heading to a FIFA watch party in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m essentially a curious person, and I attend a lot of different webinars, some where I know nothing about the topic, mainly because I want to learn,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her convocation address, Gutman talked about \u201cnot being afraid to undertake work in an area or sub-area that is unfamiliar. In my case, it was being invited to lead a research project on seniors\u2019 housing. When offered that job,\u201d she recalled, \u201cI blurted out, \u2018But I don\u2019t know anything about seniors\u2019 housing.\u2019 I was told, \u2018You have 90 days to learn.\u2019 I read everything I could lay my hands on and became a 90-day expert.\u201d<\/p>\n
After having been invited to the FIFA watch party, Gutman told the JI<\/i> she used AI to learn all the fundamentals of soccer and how the World Cup worked \u2013 she became \u201ca three-day expert,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her knowledge on aging, however, Gutman is a decades-long expert, though she attributes her career choice to happenstance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was serendipitous,\u201d she said of becoming a gerontologist.<\/p>\n
Gutman lived in Calgary for some of her childhood \u2013 though she was born in Seattle \u2013 and her late husband, Gary, was from the city. Because of these connections, she did part of her post-secondary schooling there, at the University of Alberta\u2019s satellite campus (which became the University of Calgary in 1966).<\/p>\n
Gutman, who had majored in English and psychology at the University of British Columbia, said she went to the U of A English department and was told, basically, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go home and have a baby?\u201d (She and her husband would have three children.) Her experience with the psychology department went differently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Faculty member Dr. A.E. David Schonfield, a pioneering figure in gerontology and the psychology of aging, suggested Gutman do a master\u2019s in the field \u2013 and she did.<\/p>\n After about five years in Calgary, the Gutmans moved back to Vancouver. Her husband continued to build his practice as an accountant and Gutman started her PhD at UBC. \u201cAt that time, nobody was doing aging, so I had to do it in social and developmental psychology,\u201d which then covered ages 0 to 14, she said.<\/p>\n After finishing her PhD in 1971, Gutman taught Psych 100 for 10 years at UBC. She developed the first psychology of aging course ever to be taught in the province. She was a part-time assistant professor when she asked her dean for a full-time position. He refused, describing the study of aging as a \u201cflash-in-the-pan phenomena.\u201d<\/p>\n
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