'Gus' Fraenkel was foundation dean and chairman of the school of medicine at Flinders University, South Australia. He was born in Berlin on 29 May 1919, the first child of Eduard David Fraenkel, who later was to become professor of Latin at Oxford, but came from a medical family: his uncle Albert Fraenkel having been the first to describe the pneumococcus. Gus Frankel's mother was Ruth von Velsen, Dphil, daughter of the director general of the Ministry of Mines. Fraenkel was educated at Bertholds Gymnasium, Freiburg, and later at the Perse School, Cambridge. He studied medicine at Oxford, where he won the Radcliffe prize in obstetrics and was *proxime accessit* in surgery. His early posts were held at Harefield, Worcester and Nottingham, and he returned to the Radcliffe Infirmary as surgical tutor. He was considerably influenced by Sir Hugh Cairns, the first Nuffield professor of surgery. Other influences were Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors, Sir Thomas Dunhill and J B Pennebacker. His early writings at Oxford with R G Macfarlane were on surgery in the haemophiliac patient. He left Oxford in 1958 to become professor of surgery at Otago University, New Zealand. There he made contributions to surgery in haemophilia and carried out experimental work on temporary aortic occlusion in dogs, and vascular factors in the regeneration of the liver. With J Ludbrook he wrote *A Guide to house surgeons on the surgical unit* (London, Heinemann Medical) which went to a number of editions. Other writings were on medical education in the USA and Britain. In 1970 he was appointed foundation dean and chairman of the new school of medicine at Flinders University, South Australia, a post he held until he retired in 1984. At Flinders, he shared with John Blandford responsibility for the planning, financing, building, staffing and commissioning of the medical centre. This work involved visits to a number of medical schools in Australia and overseas, and the establishment of chairs of ophthalmology, rehabilitation and microbiology. He was President of the Medical Board of South Australia. As consultant to the international development programme of the Australian universities and colleges, he did much to direct aid to the new School of Medical Sciences in Penang, Malaysia. After leaving Flinders, he took up a part-time post as co-ordinator of research at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and wrote a biography of Sir Hugh Cairns (Oxford University Press, 1991). In 1985, he was awarded an honorary MD and was made a Member of the Order of Australila. Fraenkel married Ruth née Anderson in 1957. They had three children, one daughter Margaret, and two sons, David and Graham. All of whom entered medicine. There is a portrait by Clifton Pugh in the Flinders Medical Centre. He died on 11 September 1998.