John Louis Guidubaldi

1939 ~ 2021

Dr. John Guidubaldi, of Port Orange, passed away Friday evening in his home at the age of 82. Born in Girard, Ohio to Louis and Julia Guidubaldi, and the second oldest of four siblings (Maryann, Phyllis, and David), John retired to Florida in 2005 after a long career in school psychology and academia. Just a few of his many distinctions include his twelve years as the chair of Kent State University's Early Childhood Education department, his years as a Midshipman in the U.S. Naval Academy, his doctorate in Education and Human Development from Harvard, and his seven children.

Because John was never good at sitting still and was so genuinely interested in his fellow man, his education and psychology career spanned decades as well as continents. After getting his bachelor's degree in education from Youngstown State University, he began his career as a mathematics teacher at Howland Junior High School in 1962. He went on to get his master's degree from Kent State in 1964, and then moved his small family—consisting of his wife Betty and toddler son, John—to Boston. Amidst a time of constant protest and unrest on the Harvard campus, he spent long hours in his office there finishing his dissertation on social competence in preschoolers. He received his PhD in 1969 and, in search of a calmer life in academia, moved his family—now a little bigger since the birth of his daughter Lisa—back to Kent, shortly before the May 4th shootings.

Even after the turmoil of the1960s had died down in the Midwest, John's time at Kent was extraordinarily busy. He created and edited the nation's first journal of school psychology, the School Psychology Digest. He published a regular newsletter for parents in Highlights magazine, created the Battelle Developmental Inventory and the Parenting Satisfaction Scale tools, and ushered many doctoral graduate students out into the world. He hosted Jim Henson and Captain Kangaroo on campus. He led the Father Involvement Project, a years-long study on the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. For years he was the president of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). He was recruited by Beijing Normal University to conduct a study on divorce and child adjustment in China. He was appointed a US Commissioner for President Clinton's Commission on Child and Family Welfare, and from there served on the Ohio Family Law and Children Task Force and the Ohio Child Support Advisory Council. He was on Oprah.

But all that apparently wasn't enough for John. Also during this time, he began a private practice. He had a second daughter, Dina. He became the staff psychologist for Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, a post he held for 23 years. He bought a zippy white Alfa Romeo convertible and drove it to tennis matches on the weekends. He held huge parties in his Italian-themed basement, complete with a red shag rug and a player piano. For a time, he made yearly batches of homemade wine with an old grape press, and was the most sought-after Frank Sinatra impersonator in Northeast Ohio, performing regularly in local nightclubs.

And that was just the first phase of his life.

After he retired from Kent State in 1993, John taught psychology at John Carroll University in Cleveland. He and Betty had divorced years earlier and his children were grown, so he became restless. He tried golf, and went on one disastrous windsurfing excursion. He designed and built a beautiful Italianate villa across the street from the beach in Florida. He spent time with old childhood friends and checked up on his elderly uncles, Ditch and Chuck. He watched a lot of football, and became a devoted fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes in particular. But he soon realized that retirement was not quite for him. Something was missing, and he found out what—or who—that was when he met his second wife, Julie, in 1994. They began a family together when John was 58, and they moved their three young children—Anna, Joseph, and Maria—down to Florida when they relocated permanently in 2005. Several years later, when John was 70, they had another daughter, Eva.

Unconventional until the end, this was how John spent his twilight years: chauffeuring the kids to and from school, rushing them to band practice, and helping them with homework. He spent lots of time with his grandchildren, too: Bailey, Madison, and Timothy, Lisa's three children; and Michael, John's son. He rekindled his friendship with his ex-wife, Betty, when she too moved to Florida, and they often played pinochle or poker late into the evenings. He sang at Port Orange wine bars and in the shower. He loved crosswords and good books, poetry and music. He loved homemade Italian food and his daughters' baking. Most of all, he loved the people with whom he surrounded himself, and was a giving and omnipresent husband, father, colleague, and friend.

The ultimate multitasker, John will be remembered for his vitality, his eagerness to talk to anyone he met, his generosity, his hard work, and his notorious lateness. As his family members know all too well, because his schedule was so full, his appointments so many and varied, John was rarely on time. He was late to the airport, to the movies, to parties, and sometimes to pick up the kids. Thus it came as no surprise when he was late even to his own passing. John courageously survived two brain tumor surgeries, an aneurysm, years of COPD, occasional gout, several ulcers, and at least one stroke before he finally showed up for that last appointment on Friday evening. Perhaps inspired by his favorite Dylan Thomas poem, he raged against the dying of the light for as long as he could, and then some.

A visitation will be held Wednesday November 17, 2021 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Lohman Funeral Home Port Orange.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday November 18, 2021 at 8:30AM at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church.  There will be military honors at Cape Canaveral National Cemetery on Thursday November 18, 2021 at 10:00AM.  Donations can be made to St. Jude or Halifax Hospice in John's memory.