Ex-Lebanon hostage Thomas Sutherland dies at age 85

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — 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 on Saturday remembered Sutherland 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,” his wife, Jean Sutherland, said. “That’s just the way he wanted to.”

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Thomas Sutherland was born on May 3, 1931, and raised on a Scottish dairy farm. He graduated from Glasgow University in Scotland and moved in the 1950s to the United States, where he attended graduated school at Iowa State University.

He became a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State, where he taught for nearly three decades before going on leave in 1983 and serving as a dean of faculty of agriculture and food science at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Islamic militants captured Sutherland on June 9, 1985, near his Beirut home along with 53 other civilians, including Associated Press bureau chief Terry Anderson. He spent 2,354 days in captivity, never seeing the light of day, before being freed on Nov. 18, 1991.

“I spent six years out of the seven years I was in captivity with Tommy,” Anderson told The Associated Press on Saturday. “We were kept in the same cells and sometimes on the same chain. Whenever they moved us, generally Tommy would show up with me. He was a kind and gentle man.”

Sutherland taught him French when they were hostages, Anderson said. “He spoke beautiful French. We practiced irregular verbs,” he said.

Anderson said Sutherland “was a guy who remembered everyone he ever met. He never forgot anyone. I don’t know how he did it. He was such a people person that he remembered everybody. When we were in prison, we would sit and talk about things we had done and places he had gone. He always talked about the people he met there, and he remembered them. He was a very, very good man.”

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

in a posting Saturday on Colorado State’s website, CSU’s President Tony Frank said: “The 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,”

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 $16.5 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 said, “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.’ ”

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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 book chronicles the Sutherlands’ individual experiences during the hostage ordeal, while also offering a glimpse into the ongoing strife in the Middle East.

In the book’s opening pages, former President George H.W. Bush wrote: “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.”

Jean Sutherland said her husband was a gentle man who loved his students, loved the community and loved to tell stories.

He’d wear a kilt on the last day of class, leaving a lasting impression with his students.

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 Sutherland 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.

Follow Jason Pohl con Twitter: @pohl_jason; contributing: The Associated Press