Born in Sunderland on 30 April 1932, Russell Hopkins went to dental school in Newcastle, followed by dental practice in Hartlepool, Cambridge, Salisbury, and Southern Rhodesia developing an interest in general anaesthesia. Returning to an SHO post at Nottingham General Hospital including maxillofacial injuries, he worked for Tom Battersby, treating a population of 2 million, including all facial traumas. Russell worked hard, had natural surgical talent and gave the anaesthetics for two GA lists weekly in A&E. As registrar in Chertsey he came under the influence of Norman Rowe. Medical school followed at the Royal Free, with medicine in Croydon and surgery at Bolinbrook Hospital where he befriended his resident surgical officer, Bill Heald. After a senior registrar post in Newcastle, he was appointed consultant in OMFS in Cardiff, establishing himself with his then senior registrar, Khursheed Moos. Hospital consultants were held in low esteem by the dean and some academics and he was not allowed to teach students. They nevertheless queued to join his clinics and operating lists. He took over facial trauma management in Cardiff becoming chair of dental staff, and then medical staff, establishing joint clinics in orthodontics with Derek Seel, and in maxillofacial prosthetics with John Bates, and then significantly with Derek Stafford. He was proud of giving trainees quality surgical training and of their subsequent distinguished careers. In 1970 he married Jill and they had three children, Richard, Claire, and Robert. Russell sat on several national BMA committees and between 1985 and 1991 became general manager of the University Hospital of Wales, one of the first clinicians to be a senior manager. He rectified some deplorable conditions of the estate and took on vested interests that short changed the NHS and was awarded an OBE in 1989. President of BAOMS [British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons] in 1993, he went on to chair health trusts. He could be tough, provocative, and outrageous, but could also be a delight to work with. He wrote in his autobiography, ‘Some clinical managers forgot they were clinicians and that ethical and quality care of patients was their number one priority. Because of this an increasing number of NHS disasters filled the headlines’. He had no idea that he would become one of its victims. Eventually his medical problems caught up with him and he died peacefully in his sleep on 2 February 2020.