Lasting Memories

Kenton K Sutherland
June 17, 1935-Jan. 1, 2012
Menlo Park, California

Dr. Kenton Kienzle Sutherland (b. June 17th, 1935 : Oakland, CA - d. January 1, 2012 : San Mateo, CA) 76 years old, of Menlo Park passed away unexpectedly at Brookside Nurse and Care Facility in San Mateo, California, while recovering from an ecoli infection he contracted while on assignment at the State University of Malang in East Java, Indonesia.

Dr. Sutherland began his teaching career at College of the Desert in Palm Desert and soon after moved on to teaching at the City College of San Francisco.

In the early 1970s, he started teaching at Cañada College along with many of the original faculty members at the newly formed California State Junior College. Dr. Sutherland was a fundamental contributor to Cañada?s English Institute, which later developed into the current ESL Department at Cañada College.

As a Linguist, his classroom emphasis was on using music, via melody and rhythm, to encourage language learning, but it was mostly his intelligence, his exuberance and his entertaining personality that left its mark on the thousands of students he taught across the globe.

A life long learner and teacher, Kent or Kenny, as he was known to friends and family, loved dancing, theatre, literature, music, cinema, camping, people and pets; but right in line behind his greatest love of all, his family, was his love for traveling. So it is of no surprise to all that knew him that during his 12 years of retirement he continued to add to the list of over 60 countries he visited and that the adventure was still in him as his three final assignments led him to China, Iraq and Indonesia.

Education: Stanford University, Ph.D. (ABD) in Linguistics, 1976.

Organizations: TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. : Charter Member since 1966 CATESOL: Founding Member (1969), Journal Editor (1974-76), President (1978-79). Coordinator, Northern California Conference (1987)

Dr. Sutherland is survived by his wife Sheilla Sutherland, owner of The Children's Shoppe in Sharon Heights. His 5 sons: Scott of San Mateo, Mark of San Mateo, Grant of Tujunga, Jason of San Mateo, Evan of Brooklyn, NY, and his lone daughter Sabrina of San Francisco. He is also survived by his granddaughters Kate Lyn and Sarah, his nieces and nephews and his Toy French Poodle Gierry.

A celebration of Dr. Sutherland?s life is to be held at Cañada College for family, friends, students and colleagues. Please contact the family for further details.

The family has requested any gifts be made out to your favorite charity in Dr. Kenton Sutherland?s name.