David Stirrups, who died on Friday 12 August following a short illness, was an inspirational clinician, teacher, educationalist and colleague. David qualified from Sheffield Dental School in 1970, winning the prize for orthodontics. He became a Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974 and did his orthodontic training in the North of England before being appointed a consultant at Glasgow Dental Hospital. It was during his training that David realised he needed to know more about statistics in order to analyse research papers and so completed an Open University degree in mathematics, followed by a Master’s degree in applied statistics. This training underpinned his innate facility with data, and made him sought after as a statistician. David was a very talented clinical orthodontist and his ability to predict facial growth and dental development and apply this to interceptive orthodontics was second to none. Appointed to the Chair of Orthodontics in Dundee in 1992 he immediately made a huge impact. He was the dental school’s first teaching Dean and galvanised us into activity to improve and develop the curriculum. He published widely in the field of orthodontics and co-edited a unique book on dental education, which sought to summarise the germane learning points in the dental curriculum. As well as training undergraduates David was a very committed postgraduate teacher who loved helping people, and he inspired a generation of high achieving orthodontists. He was a mentor as well as a friend and colleague to many, and had endless patience and generosity with his time. David was a man of tremendous integrity and sound judgement, and his advice on a wide range of clinical, academic and political matters was much sought after. He also had a tremendous sense of humour and fun that was infectious, and he could lighten any dire academic event with a witty quip. Following retirement from Dundee in 2007 he took up a consultant post in Middlesbrough before he and his wife Anne retired to Cambridgeshire. David had many interests including gardening, camping, orienteering and stamp collecting. He became a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society and was a world-renowned expert on the postage stamps of Gibraltar. We remember David as a thoroughly decent man, talented and generous, who helped many along the way. His death at such an early age is tragic for one who had so much still to offer.