Albert B Ferguson Jr was chairman of the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and a legend of orthopaedic surgery in the United States. He was born in New York on 10 June 1919, the son of Albert Barnett Ferguson and Vera Georgina Ferguson née McCreary. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1941 and from Harvard Medical School in 1943. During the Second World War he served in the Marines for three years in the Pacific. After the war, he trained in surgery and orthopaedic surgery in Boston, at the Children’s, Peter Bent Brigham and Massachusetts General hospitals. In 1953 he was appointed as the Silver professor of orthopaedic surgery and the first full-time professor and chairman of the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He retired in 1986. At Pittsburgh he founded the orthopaedic surgery research lab and the orthopaedic residency program. He trained several generations of orthopaedic surgeons, from the US and abroad, many of whom went on to become chairs of academic departments and training programs. Ferguson wrote many publications on the care of children and adults with musculoskeletal conditions and several texts on orthopaedic surgery and the treatment of athletic injuries. He was an early ABC (American-British-Canadian) Travelling Fellow. He was president of the American Orthopaedic Association (in 1976) and of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, and a founding member of the Hip Society. He became an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1986. He was an honorary member of the British Orthopaedic Association and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Contributions of Orthopaedics Award from the American Orthopaedic Association, and, in 2007, the Distinguished Service Award from the Pennsylvania Medical Society. Outside of surgery, he was an accomplished landscape painter and farmer. Ferguson was married to Louise Enequist Ferguson for more than 60 years. Predeceased by his wife and their daughter, Laurie, he was survived by their three sons Sanford, Bruce and Gary, 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild. He died on 20 August 2014 at the age of 95.