Alan John Drinnan was a professor of dental surgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo, New York, USA. He was born in Bristol, England on 6 April 1932, the son of Leslie Cyril John Drinnan and Doris May Drinnan née Porter. He served as a dental officer in the Army and later immigrated to the United States. At Buffalo he became chairman of the department of oral medicine and director of the dental department at Buffalo General Hospital. He was a diplomate of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, president of the American and International Associations of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologists and a consultant to the Armed Forces’ Institute of Pathology, World Health Organization and American Dental Association. In 1956 he married Marguerite Bondolfi. They had two children, Michael and Julia, and four grandchildren. Drinnan died suddenly on 8 January 2004 at the age of 71 from heart disease. A fund was established in his honour at the State University of New York at Buffalo to provide financial assistance to students in the department of oral diagnostic sciences.