Kenneth Grant Reid was born in Glasgow in 1938 and after early education entered St Mary's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1962. He was appointed house surgeon at Paddington General Hospital, house physician at St Mary's and later senior house officer in the casualty department at Central Middlesex Hospital before being awarded a travelling scholarship to the United States. Whilst there he undertook research, mainly on cardiovascular topics, and the results were published in three important papers in *Nature* in 1967, 1968 and 1969. He served as demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Oxford and was later lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Surgery. He passed the FRCS in 1971 and was elected Hunterian Professor in 1973. In 1979 he was appointed senior lecturer in cardiac surgery at the University of Edinburgh and honorary consultant at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. In addition to a heavy professional commitment he was an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher. Concerned at the steady growth of cardiac surgical waiting lists he pressed strongly, but unavailingly, for adequate facilities and his perseverance was such that his logically presented arguments arrived on the desks in Whitehall. Other recommendations prevailed however and the cardiac surgical services in Edinburgh were not expanded. Later he was invited to lead the cardiac surgical unit at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh and finally in 1989 was appointed senior surgeon to the University Hospital in Ghent but sadly illness prevented him from embarking on this new phase in his career. Throughout his professional career his energy and enthusiasm were a constant inspiration to colleagues and junior staff and he made numerous contributions on cardiac surgery to professional societies and to journals. He died on 27 October 1989, aged 51, survived by his wife and three sons.