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Fort Collins' Thomas Sutherland dies at 85

Jason Pohl
jasonpohl@coloradoan.com
Tom Sutherland raises his arms as he exits a plane at the Fort Collins/Loveland Municipal Airport in 1991. Sutherland was held hostage in Lebanon for over six years.

Dr. Thomas Sutherland, a Colorado State University professor who was teaching in Beirut when he was taken hostage and held in darkness for more than six years, died Friday evening at his Fort Collins home.

He was 85.

Family and friends gathered Saturday at the home of the ailing Fort Collins icon and philanthropist. They remembered Tom for both the optimism he brought the U.S. upon his return in 1991 as well as the youthful energy and characteristics of a gentleman exhibited through his final days.

“He just passed away so peacefully,” said Jean Sutherland, Tom’s wife, in a telephone interview with the Coloradoan. “That’s just the way he wanted to.”

Born on May 3, 1931 and raised on a Scottish dairy farm, Tom Sutherland graduated from Glasgow University in Scotland and moved to the U.S. in the 1950s where he attended graduate school at Iowa State University.

REMEMBERING SUTHERLANDCondolences from the community

He then became a professor of animal sciences at CSU, where he taught for 26 years before going on leave in 1983 and serving as the dean of faculty of agriculture and food science at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Islamic militants captured Sutherland June 9, 1985, near his Beirut home along with 53 other civilians. He spent 2,354 days in captivity and never saw the light of day, before being freed Nov. 18, 1991.

He returned to Fort Collins on Dec. 1 that year to much fanfare, celebration and hope.

Sutherland and his wife were enthusiastic supporters of local philanthropic efforts. The couple established the Sutherland Family Foundation to support Fort Collins nonprofits with the $37.5 million they received as part of an award from a massive lawsuit against Iran for its involvement in the hostage situation.

Asked in 2001 how he hoped people would remember him, Sutherland responded, “I would like them to remember that I was the recipient of an awful lot of kindness and goodwill and would like, if possible, to repay that. And, that they could say when I die: `Here's a guy who did do something for other people.”

EXCERPTSIn his own words: What Tom Sutherland had to say

In addition to professional speaking, the Sutherlands co-authored "At Your Own Risk: An American Chronicle of Crisis and Captivity in the Middle East." The nonfiction book chronicles the couple’s individual experiences during the hostage ordeal, while also offering a glimpse into the ongoing strife in the Middle East and between Islam and the West.

“Tom Sutherland is a true American hero. …He was a hostage, yes; but he never felt sorry for himself nor did he complain of his situation. He inspired us all with his grit and his unfailing faith in his God and his country,” former President George H.W. Bush wrote in the book’s opening pages.

Above all, Tom Sutherland was a truly gentle man who loved his students, loved the community and loved to tell stories, Jean said Saturday.

And that Scottish wit. He’d wear a kilt on the last day of class, leaving a lasting impression with his students. And there is a joke involving a Scotsmen, a banana peel, a fall, and a bottle of whisky that those close to him have heard a time or three.

Sutherland had suffered a number of health setbacks since the early 2000s. Part of that was due to his age, coupled with the toll of being held in captivity, Jean said. The rest can be attributed to his energetic nature and a will to keep up with his grandchildren, especially on the ski slopes — he fractured his tibia in 2003 when he took a fall.

He recently suffered a compression fracture on his back, and his health had been failing a bit more every day.

“It just seemed to take the starch out of him,” Jean said.

 

Community support

Bas Bleu Theatre Co., Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado, Colorado Boys Ranch near La Junta, Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting, and KUNC-Community Radio for Northern Colorado were just some of the many groups the Sutherlands supported through the years.

Wendy Ishii, founding artistic director of Bas Bleu in Fort Collins, spoke with Tom Sutherland about a week before his death. They chatted about the theatre’s upcoming anniversary, wondered where all the years had gone and swapped stories about the aches and pains that accompany aging.

"It’s astonishing to me how resilient that he was given what he’d been through," Ishii said in a telephone interview. "He had such an incredible generosity of spirit.

“I think he was ready.”

In 2014 CSU awarded Tom and Jean the CSU Founders Day Medal for his service to the university and, more broadly, to higher education worldwide.

FROM THE ARCHIVESFreedom sweet for Tom Sutherland

"His spirit and optimism inspired the world, and the deep devotion of his family during the bleak years he was a hostage taught us a profound lesson of courage, faith, and hope," CSU President Tony Frank wrote Saturday. "...[T]he entire Colorado State University community joins once again in honoring a true hero – who believed that an understanding of agricultural science could bring relief to people and communities in hunger - and that education could be a force for good and light in our world that would transcend borders and differences among nations."

Fort Collins Mayor Pro Tem Gerry Horak praised the Sutherland’s humble nature and desire to live the values Fort Collins embodies in terms of arts and teaching.

“He and Jean just lived their lives the way you’d hope folks would,” Horak said. “He made Fort Collins a better place.”

Details about a public celebration of life, tentatively scheduled for August, will be released as they become available Jean said. Tom did not want a funeral.

“He just said, ‘I want a happy thing.’ We’ll make it that way.”

This story has a correction: Tom Sutherland and family were awarded $37.5 million in a lawsuit against Iran, not $16.5 million as previously reported.

Reporter Jason Pohl covers breaking news for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter: @pohl_jason.