During his tenure at Towson, he held various committee assignments, served as a reading consultant to Harford County public schools for nearly 30 years, and prepared and copyrighted one of the earliest lines of phonics flashcards.
In 1957, Dr. Gutkoska established a free reading clinic - now the Towson University Reading Clinic - for students with reading difficulties at the Lida Lee Tall School on the Towson campus.
Today, the program meets several times a week and also includes a program for adults.
"It really is an important part of Towson's commitment to the community," said Dr. Karen Blair, who was his graduate assistant from 1972 to 1973.
"I came back as his assistant faculty director of the master's in reading education program," said Dr. Blair, who has headed the program since Dr. Gutkoska's retirement in 1994.
"He had been my boss, my mentor and a consultant," she said. "He was the quintessential master's teacher and his students felt the same way about him, as well as the junior faculty."
Because he had been a professional dancer, Dr. Blair said, he had a "delightful theatrical air about him, and in addition to being knowledgeable, was also very entertaining."
He also used various props in his lectures.
"He totally enjoyed his audience whether it was in a classroom or at a conference," Dr. Blair said. "He was the best."
Dr. Gutkoska had enjoyed duckpin bowling and dancing two or three times a week with his wife until 1999, when he lost both of his legs below the knee due to complications from cardiac surgery.
After being fitted with prosthetics, Dr. Gutkoska learned to walk again and resumed driving his car.
"For the last 10 years, every week, he and my mother would drive up to Carroll County and have lunch with me," said another son, Kenneth G. Gutkoska of Hampstead. "It was our time to be together."
In a speaking program, Dr. Gutkoska explained why he had chosen education to be his life's work.
"Reading may not be the most important thing that a student learns in school, but it's far ahead of whatever is in second place," he wrote.
Dr. Gutkoska had been a longtime communicant of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Roman Catholic Church, 20 E. Ridgely Road, Timonium, where a Memorial Mass will be offered at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Also surviving are his wife of 54 years, the former Marjorie Lynch; and four grandchildren.
