Frank Stinchfield, a leading American orthopaedic surgeon, was awarded the honorary FRCS in 1978 when he was President of the American College of Surgeons; he was welcomed on that occasion not only by the orthopaedic fraternity in Britain but by the many surgeons who had encountered his benevolent friendship. He was born in Warren, Minnesota, in 1910 and attended the University of North Dakota. His medical education was completed at North Western University, Chicago, where he graduated in 1934. After a residency at the Passavant Memorial Hospital he went to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre in New York. He saw war service as a colonel in the US army, after which he was appointed to the New York Orthopaedic Hospital where he became chairman of the orthopaedic department and later Director of the hospital. He served there for twenty years, during which time he pioneered hip replacement operations. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the ACS from 1967 to 1976 and was later the first orthopaedic surgeon to be elected President, in 1977. He died on 1 December 1992 survived by his wife of 53 years, Margaret, née Taylor, and their son Lee.