Professor Rodney Beresford Dockrell was the first dean of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was born on 1 July 1921 in Dublin. His father, Henry Morgan Dockrell, was managing director and chairman of the family firm Thomas Dockrell, Sons and Co, a hardware store and builders’ merchants in central Dublin, and a prominent Fine Gael politician. His mother was Alice Evelyn Dockrell née Hayes. Dockrell’s siblings included Percy and Maurice, who also became Fine Gael politicians, and Marguerite, a champion swimmer who competed in the 1928 Olympics. His grandfather Sir Maurice Edward Dockrell was a Unionist MP; his grandmother Margaret Dockrell née Shannon was a suffragist, philanthropist and councillor. Dockrell attended Kingsdown Grammar School and then Trinity College Dublin, where he studied dentistry and medicine. He qualified with his MB BCh in 1948 and by 1954 had achieved a masters degree in dental science. He spent a postgraduate year at Harvard, where he learnt the latest American research on cranial-facial growth development. Back in Ireland, he trained in orthodontics with the pioneering orthodontist Sheldon Friel, later opening consulting rooms in the same house as Friel in Fitzwilliam Place and building up a successful private practice. In 1964 Dockrell was appointed to the chair of orthodontics at Trintiy College Dublin and gave up his private practice, becoming chief consultant at Dublin Dental Hospital. From 1965 to 1980 he was also director of Trinity’s school of dental science. When the new faculty of dentistry was established at the Royal College of Surgeon in Ireland, he was appointed as the first dean. He was also president of the metropolitan branch of the Irish Dental Association and Ireland’s representative on the General Dental Council in the UK. Through the European Orthodontic Society, he maintained contact with colleagues abroad, especially in Norway and Sweden. In 1965 he became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He enjoyed gardening, modern Irish art, music and chess, as a member of the Dublin-based Rathmines Chess Club. He and his wife Adrienne (née Forde), whom he married in 1951, had a holiday home at Ballyconneely, Connemara, where he fished for trout. Dockrell died on 11 June 2007 at St James’s Hospital, Dublin. He was 85. He was survived by Adrienne, their four children Hazel, Hayes, Derek and David, and grandchildren Vicky, Simon, Lucy, George, Ben and Killiant.