An Iowa State University graduate who was held hostage in Lebanon for more than six years has died. Thomas Sutherland died this past weekend at his home in Fort Collins, Colorado, he was 85. Sutherland was a native of Scotland who received his masters and P-H-D in animal breeding at Iowa State University. He began his teaching career at Colorado State, and was serving as the dean of the agriculture faculty at American University in Beirut, Lebanon when he was kidnapped on June 9th of 1985.

Thomas Sutherland (Image from blacktie-colorado.com)

Sutherland was held with fellow Iowa State graduate Terry Anderson, a reporter who had also been kidnapped, until they were released in 1991. Sutherland is survived by his wife Jean, who is the daughter of the late William Murray, an I-S-U professor who help create Living History Farms.

(Radio Iowa)