Psychologist with many interests
Stephen L. Guinn worked for more than 40 years as an industrial psychologist and built a successful business that had clients worldwide. He also had many personal passions and interests, and he found time to indulge them all.
He enjoyed golf, fly fishing, target shooting, Sherlock Holmes and Japanese art. He wrote poetry and prose. He took his family on trips to the United Kingdom to study history. He was especially fascinated by Stonehenge, erected in England 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
“He was a true Renaissance man,” said his wife, Kathleen.
In 2002, he installed seven tall stones in a circle in his yard in Fox Chapel. He called it Foxhenge as an homage to Stonehenge.
Mr. Guinn, 73, died on Sept. 1 after a fight with leiomyosarcoma — an aggressive and rare form of soft tissue cancer.
Foxhenge is “very symbolic of his interests,” said his wife. “His background is Welsh, and he had a huge interest in standing stones, especially in the U.K. Foxhenge is very meditative.”
Each of the Foxhenge stones is 4 to 6 feet tall. Most are local fieldstone, but at least one is made from an old curb, with some yellow paint still visible.
The seven stones represent the sun, the moon and the five planets that can be seen in the night sky, he told Post-Gazette reporter Bob Batz Jr. in a 2004
interview.
The couple moved to Pittsburgh in 1979 when he was hired as a clinical psychologist by Psychological Services of Pittsburgh. A year later he started concentrating on industrial psychology, which includes helping companies develop tests that help in hiring.
In 1990, Mr. Guinn and three other psychologists purchased the company and named it PSP Metrics.
He grew the business, acquiring international clients and developing with his co- workers a copyrighted test. He retired in December 2020.
Mr. Guinn grew up in a small town in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The couple met at Virginia Commonwealth University, where they both majored in psychology. They moved to Pittsburgh in 1971 to attend Duquesne University, where they both earned master’s degrees.
In 1975 they moved to California so he could get a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Palo Alto School of Professional Psychology.
Mr. Guinn was a longtime member of the board of trustees of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and a member of the board for Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece house in Fayette County.
He enjoyed his memberships in London’s Sherlock Holmes Society and the Northumberland Fusiliers, which is Pittsburgh’s Sherlock Holmes Society. When he wrote an article about Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopping briefly at a Pittsburgh railroad station, he was invited to speak about it.
“He was passionate about Sherlock Holmes mysteries since he was a very young boy,” his wife said.
Mr. Guinn was on the board of the Fox Chapel Golf Club, and the Japan America Society of Pittsburgh. He was an active member of the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh.
Survivors in addition to his wife include his daughter, Sharon, of London, and his brother, Michael, of Harrisonburg.
A Celebration of life will be 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Fox Chapel Golf Club. CDC guidelines on masks and social distancing will be followed.
To avoid allergy issues, the family requests no flowers. Instead donations are suggested to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy at www.waterlandlife.org or 800 Waterfront Drive, Pittsburgh 15222.
John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc. is handling arrangements.