Born on 18 December 1939 in London, David Jagelman was educated at St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill and King's College London, before going on to Westminster Hospital Medical School. After qualifying in 1963 he was surgical registrar, research lecturer and senior registrar at the Metropolitan, Westminster and St Mark's Hospitals from 1966 to 1974. During a year as senior fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, he impressed and came under the influence of Rupert Turnbull who recruited him to his department, and Jagelman thereafter worked in the United States. He was staff surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio from 1975 to 1988. In that year he was asked to establish a department of colorectal surgery at the new Cleveland Clinic in Florida, which he did with great success. His colleagues and students valued his clinical judgement and advice - often conveyed laconically - and admired his technical skill as an operator. This, together with over 200 publications, his establishment of the polyposis registry at the Cleveland Clinic, and his contributions to international meetings, assured him of an international reputation. Jagelman died on 9 August 1993, from renal cancer. He was survived by his wife, Ann, whom he had met when she was a student nurse at the Westminster Hospital, where he too was in training, and by a son and three daughters.