Born on 4 December 1923, Donald did not deviate from his childhood ambition of becoming a dentist. On leaving Manchester Grammar School he went to Manchester Dental School, where he graduated at the end of the Second World War. After serving as Captain in the Royal Army Dental Corps in Germany for two years he worked both as a dental practitioner in Stretford and as senior lecturer in the conservation department in Manchester University Dental School, where his teaching skills and patience were highly regarded. In the 1950s he was among the first set of dentists to pass the newly instituted Fellowship in Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons in England and he co-authored work setting out for the first time the principles for the clinical management of dental trauma in children. He suffered a major stroke in the mid-1970s, but with characteristic fortitude overcame the effects. On retirement in 1983 he and his wife, Mary, a former medical practitioner, retired to Cumbria, where he enjoyed many years of bird watching and animal breeding. His health deteriorated three years before his death on 3 December 2012. He is survived by his daughter, Sadie, a retired medical practitioner, three grandsons and one great grandson.