William Arthur Altemeier was born in Cincinatti on 6 July 1910. During his student days at the medical school there he helped pay his way by working as a bacteriology technician, an experience which led to a lifelong interest in the application of microbiology to surgery. While a resident at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, he undertook research into surgical infections which earned him a mastership in the University of Michigan. On his return to Cincinatti he so impressed his senior colleagues with his work on bacteroides and his academic expertise that in 1952 he was appointed over the heads of many seniors to the Christian R Holmes Chair of Surgery and Chairman of the University department of surgery, director of surgical services at the Cincinatti General Hospital and surgeon-in-chief at the Children's and Holmes Hospitals. During the next twenty-six years until his retirement in 1978 he established in what was a city hospital an academic surgical centre of international repute. As a result of his dedication he founded the Shriner's Burns Institute and the Centre for the Comprehensive Clinical Study of Trauma. He ran a very happy department and was paid that rare compliment that many heads of surgery in other parts of the United States sent their sons to work with him. "Bill" Altemeier was a "joiner", but to all organisations to which he subscribed he gave freely of his time and expertise. He was President of the American College of Surgeons in 1978-79 and received their Distinguished Service Award in 1975. He was admitted to the Honorary Fellowship in 1977. Other than surgery his interests were baseball and golf. He was a staunch supporter of the Cincinatti Redlegs and entertained his residents and his visitors in his permanently reserved box whenever possible. He married twice; his first wife Edna, by whom he had two sons and a daughter, died in 1975. His second wife, Dorothea, whom he married in 1977, survived him. He died on 23 November 1983 aged 73.