“I want to do totally different things,” she said as she prepared to hang up her judicial robe at year’s end. “I am a person who adapts to change pretty well. I like change. I get bored easily … I know I will drive by the courthouse and think, ‘Oh, my courthouse.’ ”
She’ll say goodbye officially at a joint retirement reception and swearing in ceremony Dec. 29 at the Courthouse with the next judge, Samuel Huffman of West Milton.
Gutmann first was elected in 1999 and went on to re-election two more times.
She grew up in Oakwood, graduating from high school in 1975. She started college at Ohio State University in nursing school, thinking she’d enjoy the profession because of her love being candy striper as a teen.
“I quickly realized I was not cut out for that,” Gutmann said with a laugh. “I realized what I liked about being a candy striper was talking with all the people and helping them. It was the interpersonal communication.”
She switched to a communication major and later graduated from Wright State University and law school from the University of Cincinnati. She met her husband, Mike Gutmann of Piqua, while both were law students.
Following marriage and graduation, they moved to Piqua and the firm of McCulloch Felger Fite and Gutmann. She worked at the firm before becoming a public defender in Sidney and a prosecutor in Piqua prior to her election to the court. With retirement from the court, she’ll return to the firm to work with her husband and the other lawyers.
Being a judge fit her personality, Gutmann said. “You come into contact with all kinds of people. I find that interesting and challenging. You are in the type of work where you can really make a difference in somebody’s life,” she said.
She presided over the drug court for 16 years, noting that opiates have “overrun” the criminal justice system in recent years, and said she was proud to be part of an effort to bring more professionalism to court operations.
“It has been many more good things than bad things,” Gutmann said. “This has been such an honor.”
The Gutmanns have two children, both lawyers. They are Claire, who is married to Joe Hodapp, and Will. They also have a granddaughter, Louisa Hodapp.
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