Tom McNee Sutherland

Thomas McNee Sutherland was born in Falkirk, Scotland May 3, 1931. He grew up on a Scottish dairy farm doing all types of farm work, including cropping and livestock husbandry on a 50-cow mixed dairy farm. He received his B.Sc. in Agriculture from Glasgow University, Scotland, in 1953 and a post-graduate diploma in animal husbandry from Reading University, England, in 1954, doing research on pigs. He applied to graduate school in animal science, was accepted and received his M.S. degree in 1956 from Iowa State University. That same year year he married Jean Ann Murray of Ames. In 1958, he completed his Ph.D. degree. Sutherland took a position at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. He then served world agriculture in Ethiopia as Director of Training, International Livestock Center for Africa, Addis Ababa. In 1983, he became Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Sutherland gained world fame as a hostage of the Islamic Jihad from June 9, 1985 to November 18, 1991. During his captivity, Iowa State University remembered him and Terry A. Anderson (JLMC, 1974), a journalist with AP in Beirut and also a captive, with a ceremony at the Campanile where the bells tolled. Upon his release, he and his wife spoke out in force for peace and a world where agriculture can relieve hunger and suffering. He is now retired in Fort Collins. Tom and Jean have three daughters and numerous grandchildren.