Walter Guralnick was a professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 1 November 1916, the son of Rubin Guralnick, a physician and political activist, and Nina Guralnick née Chasman. He attended Boston Latin School and then Massachusetts State College, where he was managing editor of the college newspaper, and went on to Harvard Dental School. He graduated in 1941. He was an oral surgery resident at Boston City Hospital when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered the Second World War. He joined the military and spent four years serving in the 7th General Hospital in England. He returned to Boston in 1946 and established his own oral and maxillofacial surgery practice. He joined the surgical staff of Massachusetts General Hospital in 1951 and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine faculty in 1954. He became a clinical professor and chairman of the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital in 1967 and professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery in 1974. He served as department chair from 1967 to 1982. At Harvard Guralnick was instrumental in developing a dual DMD/MD training programme, which was approved by the Harvard faculty of medicine in 1972. He believed oral and maxillofacial surgeons should have full medical-surgical training. In Massachusetts he was actively involved in the development of dental insurance and public health policy. On an international level, he led an influential teaching delegation to China in 1980 and contributed to global surgical education via the charity Project Hope, bringing surgical and dental care to underserved regions. He was a principal investigator on National Institutes of Health research and training grants and was awarded a Kellogg Foundation grant in 1996 to study the delivery of health care. He authored numerous papers, chapters and books. He served on the admissions committees of both Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard Medical School and chaired the committee on promotions and examinations at Harvard School of Dental Medicine for 21 years. He was the only dental surgeon to chair the general executive committee of Massachusetts General Hospital. He was president of the Massachusetts Society of Oral Surgeons, the Massachusetts Dental Society, and the New England Society of Oral Surgeons, in addition to founding the New England Foundation for Continuing Dental Education. The Walter C Guralnick Professorship in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was established in 1993 at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. In recognition of his work mentoring students and staff, he received the A Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School in 2000. In 2005 he became the first dental surgeon to be awarded the Harvard Medal. In 2014, the 96th annual meeting of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons was dedicated in his honour for his lifelong contributions to the specialty. During the Second World War he had met Norman Rowe, a renowned British oral surgeon. Years later, with Rowe, Geoffrey Howe and Malcolm Harris, Guralnick developed an exchange programme between Massachusetts General Hospital, the Royal Dental, St George’s, King’s and Eastman hospitals. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1986. In 1941 Guralnick married Elizabeth Marise (‘Betty’) Marson, the daughter of one of his teachers at Boston Latin School. Predeceased by his wife in 2010, he died on 6 September 2017 at the age of 100. He was survived by their three children, Peter, Susan and Tom, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.