Candidate for
Member, Republican Party County Central Committee; County of Sonoma; Supervisorial District 1

BIOGRAPHY: RICHARD L. SUTTER

Richard Lee Sutter was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but came to California via Maryland at the age of four, and thus considers himself a Californian through and through. He was raised and educated in Southern California primarily in Pasadena, Arcadia, and Covina, but his father's work as an aerospace engineer, eventually took him to Sacramento where he graduated from La Sierra High School in Carmichael and San Jose where he became a student at San Jose State University, earning his B.A. in International Relations with minors in German, Chemistry, and Military Science. While in his undergraduate studies, Sutter was a Republican leader on campus, holding offices in the Young Republicans, Californians for Goldwater, and a campus group, Students Against Communism.

Upon graduation from San Jose State, Sutter was commissioned in the Army where he served an initial tour of four and a half years, including service with the 4th Infantry Division, a combat tour in Vietnam, and a post at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. While serving at the latter post, Sutter commuted to San Jose State in his off-duty hours and completed a Master of Arts degree in Political Science, writing his thesis on the subject, A Vision of Adam: Thoughts on the Political Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln.

After leaving active duty, Sutter attended Claremont Graduate School and studied under Leo Strauss, Harry Jaffa, and Martin Diamond. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the subject, A Trinity in Unity: The Political Thought of John Adams. During his studies at Claremont, Sutter joined the Army Reserve and held administrative posts, but soon transferred to the Special Operations Forces community where he began his secondary career as a psychological warfare officer and civil-military operations officer, a career which would take him to many destinations in the Pacific including U.S. Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii where he served as alternate CMO officer for the command. Eventually, he was called to the Pentagon as a consultant on civil affairs and special operations doctrine to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. After holding several unit command and staff positions and graduating from both the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College, Sutter retired in 1993 in the rank of Colonel.

It was just after he completed his doctoral coursework at Claremont when Sutter accepted an appointment in the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University system as Assistant Director and later Director for the Office of International Programs. In this capacity, Sutter ran international operations for the 23 campus CSU system including study programs, faculty and student exchanges, multinational research projects, and international corporate partnering projects. Sutter supervised a staff of 12 in the Chancellor's office, coordinated the work of 23 on-campus employees, and managed 88 employees overseas in 20 countries. His cumulative travel took him to every continent where he worked with higher education institutions and foreign governments to encourage and support public diplomacy through academic exchange. He came to Sonoma State University in 1997 to assist in that institution's efforts to build an international operation and to teach courses in international affairs. Sutter retired from the CSU in 2001.

Sutter is married to the former Joan Friderun Sänger of Stuttgart, Germany and they live in Santa Rosa. The Sutters have six children and twelve grandchildren living in California, Nevada, Virginia, and Finland.