 Sutermeister was a grandson of Civil War Captain Arnold Sutermeister.He got his AB in Economics at Harvard University in 1934 and his MA at University of Washington.Once married, he had three children born in the 1950s (the two oldest were girls, named Sue and Jan, the youngest was a boy, named Jack), but was later divorced from his wife (Miriam, who later remarried) after Jack left home for college.