Owen Francis Makinson was a reader in the division of restorative dentistry at the University of Adelaide. He was born in Sydney on 8 June 1928, the son of Jospeh Hubert Arthur Makinson and Bertha ‘Barty’ Makinson née Walker. He was educated at St Ignatius College and then went on to study dentistry at the University of Sydney, qualifying in 1928. He went on to study for a doctorate of dental surgery at Northwestern University, Chicago and then came to the UK, where he held a scholarship at the Eastman Clinic in London. He gained his fellowship of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1953 and then held a registrar post at the Eastman while he studied orthodontics. He later became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. He returned to Australia and joined the division of restorative dentistry at the University of Adelaide, becoming a senior lecturer and then reader. He carried out research on dental materials. In 1997 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia ‘for service to dentistry in the fields of dental materials, instruments and equipment and to education’. Makinson married Renée Sadka in 1955. Predeceased by his son Francis Leslie in 1992, Makinson died on 17 August 2006. He was 78.