Okon Odokwo Bassey was head of the cardiothoracic unit and a professor at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. He was born on 29 June 1937 in the village of Uya Oron in the Oron Local Government Area of what is now Akwa-Ibom State in Nigeria. His father, Chief Odokwo Bassey, was a farmer and his mother, Madam Ikwo (Ekpo) Odokwo Bassey, was a trader. He was the first of her three surviving children. There was no elementary school in Uya Oron at the time and so, in 1944, he went to elementary school in another village, Okuko, a five km walk from Uya Oron. At that time, to be allowed to start elementary school a child’s hand had to be able to reach over their head and touch the ear on the other side (at about age six). Bassey had a half sister Mma Mary U Bassey, who he was very attached to. She was one year older than he was and when she started elementary school in Okuko, he insisted on going to school with her even though he had not yet ‘come of age’. When he was about nine years old, he moved to another elementary school, Eyo Abasi Central School, Oron, where he lived with one of the teachers close to the school and finished in 1949. In 1950, he was admitted into the Methodist Boys High School, Oron, on a scholarship from the Okobo-Oron Local Government. Here he obtained a grade one in the West African School Certificate examinations in 1955. Between 1956 and 1957, he attended the Hope Waddell Training Institution in Calabar. Again, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Okobo-Oron Local Government and won a prize in 1956 for the best student in the Cambridge Overseas Higher School Certificate that year. In 1958 he gained admission to study medicine at the University of Ibadan, then part of the University of London. He was awarded a scholarship by the Federal Government of Nigeria for his studies and graduated in 1963, three years after his father died. He started his medical career at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria, as a house officer. In 1966, he went to the UK to train in surgery on a scholarship from the Federal Government of Nigeria. Prior to his departure, he married his fiancée, Eno Anwana Mba, on 8 January 1966 at the Hoare’s Memorial Methodist Church in Yaba, Lagos. Immediately after the wedding, she returned to continue her studies at the University of Ibadan, while he proceeded to London. There were already tensions in parts of Nigeria and, exactly one week after their wedding, there was a military coup, which would trigger the events that led to the Nigerian Civil War. Once Eno graduated, armed with her French degree, she was able to join him in England later that year. From June to December 1966, he was a senior house officer in surgery at the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital, Aylesbury. From January to June 1967, he was a senior house officer on the cardiothoracic unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He passed the final exams and was awarded the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1967. His first child, a daughter, Ekaete (Iquo), had been born at the Paddington General Hospital in London, 20 days earlier. From December 1967 to March 1968, he was a locum registrar in surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital, London, Peace Memorial Hospital, Watford, and Royal Free Hospital (annexe), London. He opted to return to Nigeria immediately afterwards although there was a war raging back home. On his return to the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, he was appointed as a second-year registrar. From January to May 1969, he served as a surgeon in the Nigerian Army Medical Corps with a rank of field major at the Delta Clinic in Port Harcourt, which was the base hospital for the third division of the Nigerian Army during the Nigerian Civil War. In 1972, after the war, he was awarded the Smith and Nephew fellowship to study cardiothoracic surgery, first at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. From thousands of Commonwealth scholars who had applied, he was one of only 12 to be selected for the award. From June to December 1972, he studied cardiothoracic surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street. He had commenced a series of studies of the lower oesophageal sphincter to explain why it was rare for adult Nigerians to have hiatus hernia and gastro-oesophageal reflux. This programme of studies (which took place in Nigeria, Birmingham and London) was approved by the University of London for the award of the master of surgery degree in May 1975. Ian McColl of Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London was his supervisor. From 1973, he was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos and headed the cardiothoracic unit there from 1976 to 1978. In October 1977 he became a professor of surgery; he had just turned 40 and was the youngest professor at the college at the time. At the end of 1978, he voluntarily retired from the University of Lagos to go fully into private medical practice; at Emmanuel Memorial Specialist Hospital in Lagos (from 1979 to 1982) and then as a joint owner of the 50-bed Oban Medical Centre in Calabar, Nigeria (from 1983 to 2001). In 2001, he joined the college of medical sciences of the University of Calabar, heading the cardiothoracic unit. He was a member of the education committee of the faculty of surgery of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and remained involved in the examination of candidates into his eighties. He served on at least three university governing councils at various times. Music was always a big part of his life, and, at the time of his death, he was the grand patron of the choir of the Wesley Methodist Cathedral in Calabar. In 2005 he was made a Knight of John Wesley, a Methodist honour. He was an avid tennis player and only stopped when he snapped his Achilles tendon while playing. He was very passionate about the Oron community and funded or contributed generously to the education and healthcare of countless relations and other people from within and outside the community. Titles he was awarded by the community culminated in the title of ‘Ikpoto Oro’, the highest title that can be conferred on an individual by the people of Oron in Akwa-Ibom State. He was a very well-loved husband, father and grandfather, teacher and mentor, brother, friend and colleague, with a fantastic sense of humour, impeccable sense of style and a love for modern technology. He continued to work at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital until January 2024, when he started to slow down. He fell ill in February 2024 and died of lung disease on 14 June 2024. He was survived by his wife of 58 years, lawyer, career educationist and teacher Eno Okon Bassey, six children Ekaete (Bassey) Fujah, an architect, Eme Bassey Ezeliora, a marketing consultant, Odokwo Bassey, a business research consultant, Nene Aderohunmu, an accountant and banker, Bassey O Bassey, an aviation infrastructure program manager and Utibe Bassey, an adviser, speaker and writer, and 13 grandchildren.