Charles Rowbotham, who has died aged 93 following a stroke, was an icon of operative excellence for decades of Manchester dental graduates. A clinician of outstanding technical ability, he challenged all about him – colleagues as well as students – with perceptive comments on new developments as well as traditional certainties. He was one of those rare individuals who was both a superb clinician, but also an excellent teacher – qualities rarely seen together. His somewhat gruff voice belied a puckish sense of humour, allied with a kindly interest in the welfare and progress of his students and junior members of staff. He could 'stretch' the high flyers, but equally he would patiently coach the seemingly hopeless students to achieve a gratifying level of ability. He carried this lively awareness into a long and happy retirement in which he was fully involved in the village life of his beloved Arnside in Cumbria, and pursued his hobby as an expert silversmith with his own maker’s hallmark, while keeping up his interests in test cricket, playing snooker with friends and listening to classical chamber music. Charles was born in Radcliffe, Lancashire, the elder son of a portrait photographer/shopkeeper and a schoolmistress, and was brought up in Burton in what was then Westmorland. By the age of ten he had lost the end of a finger having jammed it in his air rifle when shooting rats from the stable roof. He attended Heversham School showing not only academic ability but also practical skills; thus dentistry seemed an appropriate career and he started studies at the Turner Dental School in Manchester just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Following graduation in 1944 (as joint top of his year) he was conscripted into the Royal Army Dental Corps and attained the rank of Captain. On demobilisation he joined the full time teaching staff at his old school, but subsequently opened his own dental practice, although he never gave up his teaching commitments, being interested in the training of all members of the dental team. It was this interest that drew him back to full time teaching in the dental school in the 1970s when he established an undergraduate clinic featuring low seated, close support clinical work – a novelty in undergraduate teaching at the time. He co-authored (with fellow teachers in Manchester, Colin Cooke and Donald Cartledge) a series of scientific articles on the management of dental traumatic injuries to anterior teeth, being amongst the earliest of such reviews in the British dental literature. He remained fascinated by the recuperative properties of the adolescent dental pulp. He also contributed to a book on Romano-British remains found in York with observations on early British dental techniques. He is survived by Irene, his beloved wife of 68 years, his son, Ian, (two sons, John and Colin sadly predeceased him), his daughters-in-law and grandchildren, to whom we extend our sincere sympathy.