John Joseph Shea Jr was a pioneering ear surgeon who, in 1956, performed the first successful reconstructive stapedectomy. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee on 4 September 1924, the third of six children of John Joseph Shea, an eminent ENT specialist, and Catherine Shea née Flanagan. He graduated from Christian Brothers High School in Memphis and then attended the University of Notre Dame. He went on to Harvard Medical School and completed his training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. In 1952, he founded the Shea Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, and in 1954 went to Vienna for further postgraduate training. Here he developed the idea of creating an artificial replacement for the stapes bone in the middle ear, which in otosclerosis progressively stiffens, causing hearing loss. When he returned to the US, he enlisted the help of a young engineer and designed the world's first prosthetic stapes. In May 1956, Shea performed a stapedectomy on a woman with otosclerosis, restoring the patient's hearing. Shea presented his results to an initially sceptical medical audience; the operation is now performed and taught worldwide. He went on to pioneer numerous other techniques for the treatment of deafness and dizziness, and developed many instruments and prostheses to restore hearing. In 1957, he was appointed as a special consultant by the surgeon general, US Navy. He was a professor at the ENT departments of the University of Tennessee, the University of North Carolina, Tulane University and the University of Mississippi. In 1977, he became an honorary fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and in 1992 he was awarded an honorary FRCS. Among many awards, he received the first gold medal from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, and an achievement award from the Deafness Research Foundation. He delivered the prestigious James Yearsley lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine. A devout Catholic, he was director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. John J Shea Jr died at home on 8 February 2015 from a respiratory illness. He was 90. He was survived by his wife of 50 years, Lynda (née Mead), their five children (John Joseph III, Gwyn Rainer, Paul Flanagan, Susanna Mead and Peter Ryan), seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.