Bob Owen was a professor of orthopaedic surgery at Liverpool University and a consultant at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Royal Liverpool Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He was born in Chwilog on the Lleyn peninsula, north Wales, the son of Griffith Owen, a farmer and butcher, and Laura Mary Owen née Hughes. He spoke only Welsh until the age of eight. He was educated at a local primary school and Pwllheli Grammar School, where he was head boy, and then studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London. After qualifying he spent three years in the Royal Air Force Medical Services (from 1946 to 1949), where he was a specialist surgeon and an acting wing commander. After his military service, he trained in orthopaedics, latterly in Liverpool, in which he was outstanding. During this time, he also held an ABC (American-British-Canadian) fellowship. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry and north Wales hospitals at Rhyl and Abergele. He gave sterling service to these institutions, including the introduction of the Charnley arthroplasty, complete with ‘greenhouse enclosure’ to the first centre (Abergele) outside Wrightington. This came about through his friendship with Charnley in the late 1960s: he taught him the operation and recognised that Bob had the skills and commitment to develop hip arthroplasty in north Wales. It was with some reluctance that in mid-career he moved to Liverpool as professor at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He served these hospitals with distinction, concentrating his clinical practice in children’s work at the latter, but maintaining a general practice, including hip and knee arthroplasty at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of and contributor to the Liverpool MCh orthopaedic course. He was an outstanding orthopaedic surgeon. Aside from his clinical and operative skills, which included complex spinal surgery, he had the wellbeing of patients and colleagues at heart. An example of his concern for patients was his role as the driving force behind the establishment of houses for relatives of those undergoing hospital treatment. The house at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital has been named the ‘Robert Owen House’ in his honour. In relation to colleagues and friends, he was best described as ‘inclusive’. Apart from training and mentoring many young orthopaedic surgeons from around the world, the value of the whole surgical team was recognised through activities such an annual walk in Snowdonia, to which all members of the surgical team and their families were invited. Bob had open house invitations worldwide and over the years there were many reciprocal visits between him and his flock. As for his friends, they will always remember the golfing, hillwalking and dining occasions (‘Bob’s lunches’) which he organised. He was the author or co-author of 140 scientific papers, wrote chapters, editorials and reviews, co-edited three notable textbooks (*Scientific foundations of orthopaedic surgery and traumatology* London, William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd 1980; *Paediatric trauma* Tunbridge Wells, Castle House, 1988; and *Surgery of the spine: a combined orthopaedic and neurosurgical approach* Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1992) and wrote an autobiography, *From Criccieth to Kathmandu: the memoirs of an orthopaedic surgeon* (Y Lofa Cyf, 2015). He was a board member of *The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* and his eponymous lectures included the Sir Robert Jones Memorial Lecture in 1986 and the Bradshaw lectureship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1990. He was an elected member of the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and founder chairman of its Welsh board, vice president of the British Orthopaedic Association and president of the British Scoliosis Society and the British Cervical Spine Society. He was particularly proud to be a founder member and second president of the Welsh Orthopaedic Society. Through World Orthopaedic Concern and personal relationships, he gave outstanding service to many developing countries worldwide through ‘hands-on’, representational and teaching visits. From 1991 to 1992 he held the Lipmann Kessel Travelling Professorship, promoting health links between the United Nations, World Health Organization and World Orthopaedic Concern and primary health works in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In Wales, he was a trustee of or adviser to several charitable organisations helping disabled or ill children, deputy lieutenant for the County of Clwyd, medical ombudsman for Wales and a member of the Gorsedd of the Bards and the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. He was a staunch supporter and president of the History of Medicine Society of Wales. In 1990 he was appointed OBE for services to medicine. If one adds to all of this his family and friends, travel, shooting, fishing, hillwalking and golf (after a fashion – his swing, to say the least, was optimistic), one can see how rich and fulfilling a life he had. He was blessed with a long and active retirement, during which he was enthusiastic and indefatigable in plans for further adventures, convivial occasions and keeping actively in touch with the many organisations he served. Robert Owen died on 7 March 2018 at the age of 97. Predeceased by his wife Margaret Irene née Brown (‘Meg’), he was survived by their two children, David and Gwyneth (‘Gilly’) and five grandchildren. A strong supporter of his Welsh heritage, he was an outstanding contributor to orthopaedic surgery who espoused ‘society’ in its broadest sense, to include family, friends and colleagues.