John Williams, Consultant Orthodontist to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield and Leeds Dental Hospital, had nearly completed his term as President of the British Orthodontic Society at the time of his sudden death on 3 September 2004. The presidency is the highest honour the Society can bestow on a member, and one that John richly deserved and characteristically performed with all the zeal he brought to everything he did. In the early 1990s John, with others, made a very great contribution to the unification of the five UK national orthodontic societies which existed at the time – leading to the founding of the British Orthodontic Society in 1994. He was elected to the Board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1989, serving the maximum period allowed, 14 years, and was elected Vice Dean in 1995-96. He was an examiner for the MOrth for many years. John was born on 7 May 1940 in Leicester. His father was a dentist in the School Dental Service and his mother a primary school teacher. He attended Wyggeston Grammar School in Leicester and qualified BDS at the Royal Dental Hospital of London, School of Dental Surgery in 1962. He passed the DOrth and FDS in 1966 and the MOrth in 1988. John was an expert and very productive clinician. His students and trainees greatly admired his very practical approach to clinical problems. He was the co-author of two popular orthodontic textbooks. He was part of a team which regularly lectured, gave hands-on courses in the Far East and was a visiting lecturer in Libya and visiting examiner in Sri Lanka. John had the knack of making friends easily and was extremely generous with his time in helping them. In particular he loved machines and anything mechanical and was much in demand by his friends to mend anything from watches to cars. He had an extraordinarily enquiring mind and delighted in posing conundrums to his friends. He had a very wry sense of humour and would have enjoyed the great amusement we shared when some of his wonderfully funny spoof letters from the past were read out at his memorial service. John is survived by his wife, Sonia and two children.