Owen Daniel was a consultant general surgeon for the Clwyd and Deeside Health Board, Wales. He was born in Ystradgynlais, Breconshire, on 19 February 1917, the third child of David Daniel, a mining engineer and colliery manager, and his wife, Annie. Brought up in the south Wales valleys, Owen and his three siblings, Glenys, Goronwy and Rhona, were very close. His brother Goronwy, who was knighted in 1969, went on to become permanent under-secretary at the Welsh Office and principal of the University College of Wales. Owen attended Jones West Monmouth School for Boys in Pontypool and then Amman Valley Grammar School, from where he won the county award to study medicine at University College London. He graduated in 1942, having won the Liston gold medal for surgery in 1941. He started as a junior surgical trainee at St James's Hospital, Leeds, and the group hospitals in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1945 Owen joined the Royal Navy Voluntary Reserves with the rank of surgeon lieutenant. He was ship's medical officer in the North Atlantic convoy protection vessels, and later became a junior hospital surgeon to the Royal Navy in Bombay. His experiences during these years made him determined to continue his life as a surgeon. Owen attributed his ability to pass the primary fellowship at the first attempt to spending a lot of time at sea with his books. Returning to London, Owen became an assistant lecturer at the Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith, coming under the influence of Ian Aird. He passed the final fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1948 and became a senior registrar at University College Hospital in 1949. Owen then spent two enjoyable years in the USA, as a British Empire Cancer Campaign/American Cancer Society exchange fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. This was followed by a special fellowship in urology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. On returning to Britain, Owen became a lecturer and then a senior lecturer (with honorary consultant surgeon status) at the University of Sheffield, at what is now the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. His reputation in surgical research was formidable (he was a founder member of the Surgical Research Society) and in 1960 he gained his MS degree for his work on 'The complications which follow diversion of the urinary stream'. It was also recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons with an award of the first of two Hunterian Professorships (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1961 Oct;29:205-25). In 1960 Owen was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Rhyl, succeeding the formidable Ivor Lewis, taking surgical responsibility for the whole area covered by the Clwyd and Deeside Hospital Board. Owen retained his passion for both research and teaching, and became well-known in postgraduate training circles. This reputation attracted trainees from the UK, the USA, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Many of his former trainees went on to follow distinguished surgical careers. Owen's contributions were recognised internationally by invitations to lecture overseas, notably in India, Iraq and Lebanon. Owen continued to carry out clinical research on bile duct obstruction and other topics. He was awarded a second Hunterian Professorship in 1972 dealing with 'The value of radiomanometry in bile duct surgery' (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1972 Dec;51[6]:357-72). Early in his years in Rhyl, Owen took part in a preliminary trial of a scheme for postgraduate education initiated by the Royal College of Surgeons and funded by the Penrose May bequest. This was used initially to support visiting lecturers and later the running expenses of the Rhyl Postgraduate Medical Centre. At Owen's initiative, and with the assistance of the anatomy department in Liverpool and the approval of Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, a dissection room was incorporated into the postgraduate centre, the first authorised facility for the study of human anatomy in the UK outside the university medical schools. This facility was later transferred to the new Glan Clwyd District General Hospital. Owen became surgical tutor and regional adviser for north Wales for the Royal College of Surgeons. On his retirement in 1982, he was presented with a certificate at the Royal College of Surgeons, naming him as 'Penrose May teacher'. He was elected president of the Welsh Surgical Society in 1979 and 1980. This was recognised by the presentation of a medal just two weeks before his death. After retirement, Owen embarked on a second career farming a smallholding in Meidrim, Carmarthenshire. He also continued his passion for study and learning, becoming thoroughly immersed in Welsh culture, philosophy and history. He was honoured by admittance to the highest order of the bardic circle (white robe) of the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1982 in Swansea for 'significant contributions to medicine and surgery in Wales'. Owen was confirmed into the Church of England in Wales in 2003. These interests gradually replaced his other passions for sailing and mountain walking, to which he had always brought the same determination that characterised his surgical career. His sons recall that considerable fortitude was often required on their part. In 1947 Owen met Rhianydd Williams, originally from Cwmtwrch in the valleys, and a talented soprano and pianist, at the National Eisteddfod in Colwyn Bay. The two enjoyed time together in London when Rhianydd was a student at the Royal Guildhall School of music. They married in 1949. Their eldest son, Rhodri Daniel, is a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Hospital. Their other two sons, Ivor and Huw, have pursued successful careers outside medicine. Owen Daniel died on 25 November 2012, aged 95. Following in the giant footsteps of Ivor Lewis, Owen Daniel became a towering surgical presence in north Wales. His enthusiastic teaching and research skills influenced trainees from many different countries. They remember him with great affection. He has been a hard act to follow.