George Sutherland, 1922-1938

GEORGE SUTHERLAND was born in Buckinghamshire, England, on March 25, 1862. His family emigrated to America one year later and settled in Springville, Utah Territory. Sutherland studied at Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah, from 1878 to 1881, and attended the University of Michigan Law School for one year. Sutherland established a law practice in Provo, and after ten years moved to Salt Lake City. When Utah was admitted to the Union in 1896, Sutherland was elected to the State Senate. Four years later, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1904, Sutherland was elected to the United States Senate and served two six-year terms. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Sutherland Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Naval Armaments. Sutherland also served as United States Consul at the Hague from 1921 to 1922. President Harding nominated Sutherland to the Supreme Court of the United States on September 5, 1922, with the Senate also confirming the appointment on September 5. Sutherland retired on January 17, 1938, after fifteen years of service on the Supreme Court. He died on July 18, 1942, at the age of eighty.