Obituary - Tom Sutherland, Scot and former Rangers player who was held hostage in Beirut

Died: 23 July 2016

TOM Sutherland, who has died aged 85, was a Scots-born academic who was held captive in Beirut for more than six years before being released on the same day as the Church of England envoy Terry Waite. In total, the Scot was held for 2,353 days, often chained to a wall in a cell for more than 23 hours a day. He was also regularly beaten by the guards, but managed to help lift the spirits of his fellow hostages. In the words of the Irish hostage Brian Keenan, Tom Sutherland was a light illuminating the darkness.

Thomas McNee Sutherland was born in Falkirk in May 1931, to William and Helen Sutherland, growing up on the family dairy farm in Airth, Stirlingshire alongside his brothers Peter and William and his sisters Elizabeth, Lena and Margaret.

Educated at Grangemouth High School, he was a keen football and tennis player, playing for Airth Castle Rovers and Glasgow University where he was studying agriculture and food science.

He represented Scotland at Under-18 International level in 1948 alongside Ronnie Simpson and Derek Grierson, playing in all three games as for the first time the Triple Crown was secured with victories over Wales at Dumfries. England at Pittodrie and Ireland in Belfast, netting twice in the 3-1 win against the Welsh.

He then signed for Rangers in 1948, having originally turned down the Ibrox club due to the demands of university life. He would play just five Reserve fixtures in Light Blue during Season 1948-49, scoring once, before being released.

Although in tears at his Ibrox departure, the decision focused the teenage Tom’s mind on his academic career – and he graduated in a BSc Agriculture and Food Science in 1954. He moved to the USA – to Iowa State University – to study for his MSc and PhD where he became an expert in Animal Genetics, graduating in Animal Science in 1958.

He had by now settled in the United States, marrying Jean in 1956 – a marriage that would last fully 60 years. The couple moved to Colorado where he became a Professor of Animal Genetics at the State University, becoming a naturalised American citizen in 1963.

He maintained his Scottish links with frequent visits to visit the family home. A keen fan of Robert Burns, he became well-known in Colorado for recitals of poems and songs to local societies.

A move to Ethiopia in the late-1960s to work in livestock research followed and in 1983 he was appointed Dean of Agriculture and Food Science at the American University in Beirut for a three-year term with his wife Jean becoming an English teacher at the same institution.

On June 9, 1985 – at the height of Lebanon’s civil war - Tom Sutherland was taken hostage by Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad gunmen whilst returning from his daughter Kit’s graduation at the University of Colorado. His family had pleaded with him not to return to Beirut, all too aware that 16 months earlier the University President Malcolm Kerr had been murdered outside his office. The State Department had also consistently advised him to leave Beirut.

Jean had stayed behind in Colorado to finish her doctorate thesis on Shakespeare and Seneca and over the next six years the only news she had from her husband was three letters despite continuing to live on in Beirut on the campus of the American University, teaching English at the Hariri Foundation.

In total, 2,353 days would pass before Tom Sutherland was free – 2,353 days when he was battered and beaten by his brutal guards. Chained to a wall, and forced to eat a meagre diet of cheese and spaghetti, only one of the Beirut hostages was held captive for longer than the Scot – Terry Anderson, head of the Associated Press News Agency in the city.

Mr Anderson described the time spent in captivity with Mr Sutherland as the “most tolerable” of his incarcerated years, receiving lessons in French and Agriculture whilst in return Terry Anderson taught the Scot chess and bridge.

Another fellow hostage - the Irishman Brian Keenan - praised the Scot as “a light illuminating the darkness in those awful places, warming that chill and despair.”

Released on Monday November 18, 1991, speaking at the subsequent Press Conference Tom Sutherland astonished the assembled media by reciting Robert Burns poem To a Mouse.

This led directly to an invitation to attend the Radio Westsound Burns Supper in Glasgow. Acclaimed as the largest Burns Supper in the world, Mr Sutherland was overwhelmed with the welcome he received at the dinner, his warmth, humour and enthusiasm impressing everyone present.

He was also introduced to a packed Ibrox Stadium where he received a standing ovation at his old club.

When he arrived to a crowd of well-wishers at San Francisco International Airport, he held in his arms his four-year-old granddaughter for the first time.

Mr Sutherland returned to his job at Colorado State University, where he became Professor Emeritus after his retirement. Thousands had turned out to welcome his return to Fort Collins.

In June 2001, the Sutherland family won a lawsuit against the frozen assets of the Iranian Government, receiving US $35million, most of which was donated to charity, setting up the Sutherland Family Foundation.

Tom Sutherland died suddenly at home in Fort Collins, Colorado on Saturday July 23, 2016. He is survived by his wife Jean, daughters Kit, Joan and Ann, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

ROBERT MCELROY