Barry Altman was director of surgery at White Plains Hospital, New York. Born in London on 29 July 1927 he was the second son of Louis Altman, a millinery manufacturer and his wife Raie née Bacal. Educated in Salford, Lancashire at St John’s Elementary School and Salford Grammar School, he studied medicine at King’s College London and Westminster Medical School qualifying MB BS in 1951. It was at the Westminster that Edward Stanley Lee had a great influence on him and suggested that he became a surgeon. He did house jobs in the Isle of Wight and at the Miller General Hospital in Greenwich before doing his national service in the RAF medical branch as a flight lieutenant from 1952 to 1954. In 1953 he was awarded the Air Officer Commanding’s commendation. In 1955 he joined the staff of the Birmingham Accident Hospital and proceeded to house jobs at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (March 1956 to March 1957); Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute (1957) and Westminster Hospital (1958 to 1960). He passed the fellowship of the college in 1958 and was Hunterian professor from 1962 to 1963. Appointed a senior surgical registrar at the Westminster he spent a year on study leave at Harvard Medical School as a research fellow from 1960 to 1961 and helped to launch the kidney transplantation programme at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Before he left the Westminster he assisted Sir Roy Calne with his work on renal transplantation. In 1964 he returned to the States taking up three concurrent posts at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Two years later he went to the White Plains Hospital and stayed until 1970, also working at the Grasslands and the St Agnes Hospitals in New York. He continued as an attending surgeon on the staff of White Plains and St Agnes and also the Westchester County Medical Center. At the New York Medical College he was clinical associate professor of surgery. President of the Westchester chapter of the American College of Surgeons, he was also president of the Westchester chapter of the American Cancer Society, chairman of the peer committee on medical and professional review of the Medical Society of Westchester, president of the medical staff of White Plains Hospital and a founder member of the Transplantation Society. He enjoyed cross country skiing and was an enthusiastic sailor. A talented artist he was invited to give three one-man shows, exhibited widely and had paintings in many private collections in the USA and Europe. A few years before he died he also took up sculpture. During his time at Harvard he met Helen Jacob, a psychiatric social worker from Ohio, at a New Year’s Day Party. They married in Boston in 1961 and moved to the UK to live in Dulwich for three years before returning to the USA. They had three children Deborah Jean, a teacher; Louis Gregory, a financial officer and Peter George, a grant and program writer for Texas Citizen’s Action. When he died on 1 January 1998 aged 70, he was survived by his wife, children and seven grandchildren. Helen died on 30 December 2013.