William Costin Wood, known as ‘Bill’, was a world renowned surgical oncologist, professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta and professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health. He was born on 3 May 1940 in Fairbury, Illinois, the son of the Reverand William Andrew Wood and Violet Bernice Wood née Johnson. He attended Wheaton College and then studied medicine at Harvard in Boston. He was a surgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). After a fellowship in surgical oncology at the National Institutes of Health, he was appointed to the staff of the MGH and became head of surgical oncology and the cancer center there. While a senior resident, Bill worked for six months in Southampton, UK, under an agreement which allowed MGH residents to gain more experience of thoracic surgery for both benign and malignant conditions. In 1991 Bill was appointed to the chair of the Joseph Whitehead department of surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He also became co-editor with Sir Peter Morris of the *Oxford textbook of surgery*, taking over from his former MGH colleague, Ronald Malt. He was recognised internationally for his contribution to breast cancer research and treatment and was influential in setting up important trials into HER2 cancers and genomic assays to guide cancer therapy. He was on numerous national committees and visited the UK regularly, especially Oxford. He demitted office as chair of surgery at Emory in 2009 but continued as an emeritus professor in the division of surgical oncology at Emory and as professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health. He was also involved in the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons as academic dean, visiting Uganda especially, with Judy his wife to see their daughter Kristen, a doctor, married to an American missionary in Kampala. In recent years, his health had deteriorated, and they moved out of Atlanta to a house in North Carolina. Before he died, he phoned several of his friends to let them know he was dying. He died on 18 August 2024. He leaves his wife, Judy (née Lindsell), three children and four grandchildren. Bill was one of the most charming, polite and caring doctors I have ever known, with a wicked, self-deprecating sense of humour and we were firm friends.