Richard Graham Stead Mills was a senior lecturer in otorhinolaryngology at the University of Wales’ College of Medicine and a consultant surgeon at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. He was a multitalented man who proved a loyal and supportive colleague both to his ENT colleagues and the wider medical community. His outstanding features were his intellect, amiability and his quiet modesty, all cloaked in a mischievous sense of humour. He was the eldest of three sons of William Graham Stead Mills, a major general in the British Army, and his wife Joyce Evelyn Mills née Ransom, a military nurse. He was born in Shimla, India, on 18 August 1943, where his father was on active service in the Second World War. His early education was peripatetic as the family moved according to the whims of the Armed Forces. His secondary education was at Campbell College, Belfast, where he excelled at shooting and the pole vault. His preclinical studies were at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he met his wife Linda (née Jefferies), also a medical student, who subsequently worked in the Welsh Blood Service. He is best remembered at Cambridge for his acting as Tamburlaine the Great and Toad of Toad Hall. His clinical training was undertaken at St Thomas’s Medical School. His early postgraduate training was in Wessex in Portsmouth, Swindon and Southampton. It incorporated time at Harvard, working at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary with Harold Schuknecht, who influenced his approach to otology. His senior registrar appointment was based at the Royal Free Hospital in London with rotation to Guildford. During this appointment he was greatly influenced by John Ballantyne and John Groves. As a consultant Richard proved an excellent clinician and a thoughtful, meticulous surgeon across a broad field of head and neck surgery but was perhaps happiest in the middle ear. He took a particular delight in caring for children who responded well to his cheerful demeanour. For all his clinical expertise it is as a teacher that he will be best remembered. He provided a formidable combination of knowledge presented with humour and an ability to make complex topics simple. After retiring from clinical practice, he continued to teach in the anatomy department and was a key contributor to the development of the Doctors Academy, a provider of independent medical education and training. His easy style and humour made him a popular after-dinner speaker. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he was extensively involved with college affairs as an examiner for the primary FRCS, a teacher and leader of courses, but also as a specialty representative on the council. The courses that he ran were highly popular and long remembered by the participants, such was his charismatic teaching. Outside work his interests revolved around the natural world, with both birdwatching and angling featuring. He was a skilled woodworker and enjoyed canoeing in Canada, whence he was inspired to build his own canoe from scratch. Richard kept and maintained a distinctive Morris Minor, which made him easy to find. He was an active member of a local Probus Club. His final years were blighted by dementia. Richard died on 18 August 2021 at the age of 78 and was survived by Linda and two children: Alice, a consultant clinical psychologist, and Simon, who is a professor of music at Durham University.