Robert Victor Walker was chairman of the division of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. He was born on 21 September 1924 in Waco, Texas, the son of William Dedrick Walker, a farmer, and Annie Harrell Walker née Peerey, a schoolteacher. He was brought up in Satin, Texas and attended Texas A&M University, where he played on the baseball team and won the best-drilled cadet award. The United States Army subsequently sent him to Baylor College of Dentistry. After dental school, he started in practice at Waco. The Army recalled him during the Korean War, and he was assigned to the Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, where he was introduced to oral surgery. After leaving the Army, he trained in oral surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and then began his residency at Southwestern Medical School and Parkland Hospital in Dallas. After his residency he took over the lead of the oral surgery division at Southwestern Medical School. He was chairman of the division of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center until 1984 and continued working in the department until his death. He was involved in the formation, in 1962, of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and later served as its president. He was also president of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the Southwest Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the Dallas County Dental Society, the Texas division of the American Cancer Society and the American Trauma Society (ATS) and served on boards and as chair of many other organisations. He received many awards and honours, including the Gie Foundation award (AAOMS) and the Stone award (ATS), and distinguished service and lifetime achievement awards from AAOMS, ATS, the Texas Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, and the Dallas County Dental Society, a special citation from the board of AAOMS, and distinguished alumnus awards from Baylor College of Dentistry and Texas A&M College of Science. In 1992 a chair in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern was named in his honour, and in 1997 a major fundraising society at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation was also named after him. He became a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1982 and was also an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and of associations in South America, the Philippines and Japan. He was an usher and greeter for 30 years and also a deacon at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church. He avidly followed baseball, football and basketball, and was a keen golfer throughout his life. Walker died from pancreatic cancer on 28 April 2011. He was 86. He was survived by his widow Emily Jo Walker (née Berger), whom he married in 1947, their three children, Robert Victor, Jo Ann and Ben Judd, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.