Hyman Gaylis (Hymie) was born in the small mining town of Boksburg, outside Johannesburg, South Africa, on 17 December 1921, the son of Bennie and Mina Gaylis. His parents were Lithuanian Jews who had immigrated to South Africa in the early years of the twentieth century to escape persecution. His early years were hard, especially as his father died when he was only fourteen. At first he studied dentistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but then switched to medicine and, capitalising on his manual dexterity, began training as a surgeon. He stayed in Johannesburg to complete his master of surgery degree and, after house jobs there, continued his studies in London, UK. In 1955 he passed the college fellowship and travelled to Boston, USA where he was mentored at Harvard by the eminent vascular surgeon, Robert R. Linton, and achieved his FACS in 1957. He returned to South Africa and rapidly built up a reputation as a pioneer in vascular surgery, working as a consultant at the Johannesburg Hospital. Eventually he was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Witwatersrand Medical School. He had a reputation as a consummate and painstaking clinician and it was said of him by his peers that he was *a surgeon’s surgeon*. In 1994, when he was 74, he and his wife emigrated to San Diego, USA to join their sons and their families. Although well past retirement age, he joined the faculty of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and was appointed a voluntary professor in the department of surgery, being reappointed in his early 90’s. He also routinely attended surgical grand rounds at the UCSD and Scripps Clinic. When asked what he enjoyed most about being a surgeon he replied *Just telling the patient that they will be ok*. Outside medicine his love of working with his hands meant that he was a talented carpenter and he had a facility for mending broken machines. A keen sportsman, he had excelled at water polo in his youth and continued swimming all his life. He married Rhoda in the early 1950’s and they had two sons who both followed in their father’s footsteps. Franklyn became a urological specialist and Brendan an otolaryngologist. When he died on 5 December 2013 aged 91, he was survived by Rhoda, his sons, daughters-in-law, Jean and Merle, and grandchildren Greg, Jackie, Joshua and Alex.