James Sutherland, known as Hamish to his friends and colleagues, was a urologist in Quincy, Illinois, USA. He was born on 27 March 1922 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of William James Sutherland, a police officer, and Jean Cummings Sutherland née Johnston. He attended Hyndland Senior Secondary School in Glasgow from 1934 to 1939, where he was *dux*, and went on to study medicine at the University of Glasgow at the age of 17 on a bursary. He qualified in 1944 with honours in physics, anatomy, pathology, midwifery, medicine, surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics, ENT and dermatology. From 1944 to 1945 he was an intern for Charles Illingworth in Glasgow. He then joined the Royal Air Force as a flight lieutenant, serving in Egypt and the UK. Following his demobilisation in November 1947, he returned to Glasgow, where he was a registrar in general surgery, again working under Illingworth. From 1947 to 1956 he was a senior registrar in surgery and urology at the Western and Victoria infirmaries, Glasgow. In 1956, he was awarded a ChM for a thesis on upper urinary tract stones and, in the same year, was appointed as a urological consultant in Glasgow at the Western Infirmary, Victoria Infirmary, the Cancer Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital, Hairmyres Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital. In 1966, he emigrated to the United States with his family, initially as a urologist at the Valley Clinic in Fort Madison, Iowa. In 1968 he moved to Quincy, Illinois and opened a private practice in urology. He also taught at the Southern Illinois University department of surgery. He was a member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the American Urological Association and the American Association of Clinical Urologists. From 1979 to 1981 he was president of the Illinois Urological Society. Outside medicine he enjoyed golf, tennis, racquet ball, reading, photography and travelling (in 2000 he went around the world in 50 days). He played football into his sixties. In March 1964, he married Annie Stewart Brunton McPhie, a nurse and business manager. Sutherland died on 24 April 2008 at the age of 86 and was survived by his widow, their six children (Anne, Charles, June, Craig, Ronald and Patricia), 23 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. A son, Malcolm John, predeceased him.