James Rodway Kirkpatrick was a professor of surgery at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He was born on 27 June 1927 in Dundee. Both of his parents, Henry Joseph Rodway Fitzpatrick and Nora Fitzpatrick née Lister, were doctors. He had a twin brother, John Lister Kirkpatrick, who became an accountant. He was educated at Inverness Royal Academy and then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying in 1950. He was a registrar on the professorial surgical unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and then a research fellow at Cardiff Royal Infirmary. He later served in the Royal Naval Medical Service and retired with the rank of surgeon commander. He was a consultant surgeon at Bruntsfield and Deaconess hospitals, Edinburgh and a senior lecturer in clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. In 1976 he emigrated to Canada, where he was a professor of surgery at the University of Manitoba. He was head of the department of surgery at St Boniface Hospital until 1986, and head of general surgery from 1986 to 1998. He then joined Thompson General Hospital. He was one of the founders of laparoscopic general surgery in Manitoba, and wrote papers on gastroenterology and breast cancer. He was president of the western division of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons. He was a member of the board of governors of the American College of Surgeons and president of the Manitoba chapter. He was interested in fishing and the history of medicine. In 1951, he married Helen Louise Amelia Prendergast Fermie, who was also a graduate of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. They had three children – Bridget, Michael and Elizabeth. In 1981, he married Genevieve Thompson. He died on 15 April 2010 at the age of 82 and was survived by his widow, children, stepsons Christopher and Steven, and grandchildren – Kathleen, Emma, Felicity and Colin.