Sutherland, Robert

Person

Sutherland, Robert

ca. 1830-1878

Robert Sutherland was the first student of colour at Queen's University at Kingston, and one of its most important early benefactors. He was born in Jamaica to unknown parents, though there is some evidence that his father was Scottish. He entered Queen's in 1849, just eight years after the university was founded. He may have been the first student of colour in Canada, as well as at Queen's; the subject has not been fully researched, but none of the handful of other universities that existed then have uncovered records of an earlier entrant. Sutherland led an extraordinarily successful academic career at Queen's, winning 14 academic prizes, including one for general merit in Latin that was awarded after a vote by fellow students. He graduated in 1852 with honours in classics and mathematics and went on to study law at Toronto's Osgoode Hall. He was called to the bar in 1855 and moved to the growing town of Walkerton, south of Owen Sound, where he practised law for more than 20 years. He died unmarried in 1878 after contracting pneumonia. He had drawn up his will just three weeks before his death and left his entire $12,000 estate to Queen's. It is unclear why he did so, but friends recalled that he often said Queen's was one place where "he had always been treated as a gentleman." His donation was the largest that any one person had yet given to the university and came at a time when Queen's was still battling its way out of poverty. Principal George Grant ordered that a large granite tombstone be placed on his grave in Toronto's Mt Pleasant Cemetery – where it still stands – to mark his connection with Queen's. The City of Kingston dedicated a plaque in Grant Hall to his memory in 1973. In 1997, the Robert Sutherland Memorial Room was unveiled, located on the third floor of the John Deustch University Centre. In 2009, the Policy Studies building was renamed "Robert Sutherland Hall".

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