Tom Sutherland's story a tight fit for 40-minute CD

Public radio project records tales of love, childhood, captivity

Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, June 9, 2006

GREELEY - On the eve of the 21st anniversary of his kidnapping and imprisonment in Beirut, Lebanon, Tom Sutherland sat in the cramped soundproof booth of a mobile recording studio parked here at Lincoln Park.

He removed his gold watch and placed it on the table in front of him. Time was important. He and his daughter had only 40 minutes to record the story of the six and a half years he spent as a prisoner, as well as other important memories.

It was the first day for Coloradans to share their personal stories for National Public Radio's oral history project, StoryCorps, during its monthlong stay in Greeley.

Kit Sutherland, 46, had watched her father being interviewed many times; now it was her time to ask the questions.

She was interested in the relationship he had had with his parents and what it was like growing up on a dairy farm in Scotland.

"We didn't get a lot of meat out of it, but we got a lot of potatoes," said Kit Sutherland, describing the outcome of the interview. "It was very interesting . . . things I'd heard, but I still heard some new things."

During the interview, Sutherland needed to be precise. But it was still hard to cram his 75 years - or as he put it, "three score and 15" - on a short CD.

On June 9, 1985, Sutherland, who was dean of agriculture at American University of Beirut, was snatched from a highway by gunmen and held hostage for six and a half years. He was released Nov. 19, 1991.

In a successful lawsuit, he was able to prove that the Iranian government had been behind his kidnapping.

His captors brought him books during his imprisonment, much of which he spent chained by his ankle to a wall.

"The first book I read was The Rise and Fall of America," Sutherland said. He finished it in one night.

There was a lot to say in less than an hour.

Sutherland spoke of his childhood. He said learned from his grandfather that on a farm you worked hard six days a week and even harder on the seventh.

He told how he met his wife of nearly 50 years in a church choir and proposed after dating for just three weeks.

Sutherland's personal narrative will join thousands of others in the American Folklore Center in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. NPR's oral history project started in 2005 with a mission to travel across the country to record everyday history from everyday people on CDs.

Thousands of 40-minute interviews have been recorded. StoryCorps hopes to hear from at least 130 Coloradans during the Greeley stop.

The Airstream trailer will remain at Lincoln Park, on the corner of Ninth Street and Ninth Avenue, until June 21 before moving to Island Grove Park for the Greeley Stampede on the 23rd.

With a newly recorded CD in hand, Sutherland left the shiny silver trailer and thanked the StoryCorps crew.

"I don't have any anxiety," he said about his imprisonment. "I'm so glad to be back in the U.S."

prietob@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5219