Dr Pat Patterson, former Head of the BDA's Salaried Services Department, died after a period of ill health on 5 April 2005, just a month short of his 70th birthday.

Pat, who joined the BDA in 1976, was distinctive from the start, with a longer string of letters after his name than anyone else at the BDA. He left school at a time when Harold Wilson was promising a white hot technological revolution and a glittering future for anyone going into science. Like many people of his generation, reality was different and he had to give up research in order to feed his family. He joined the BDA from a long-defunct quango, NRDC, where he negotiated contracts between inventors and manufacturers to bring innovations to market. His passport ought to have given 'negotiator' as his occupation.

Although failing to give Pat a continuing career in science, Harold Wilson gave him something else — a batch of 1970s legislation on employment protection and union recognition which allowed him to build up from nothing the BDA's representation of individual members in salaried employment. Pat always seemed the most focused person at Wimpole Street. 'My job is to look after the members', he'd say, when attempts were made to distract him. It wasn't always clear exactly what this meant — the trouble with representing individual members is that the work is necessarily confidential so it didn't get cheers at committees. But the members looked after by Pat, in disciplinary or redundancy cases, had good reason to be grateful for his determination. He helped so many, including those affected by the closure of the Edinburgh Dental School and the Royal and University College Hospital Dental Schools in London.

Pat was involved in the establishment of the autonomous committees at the BDA in the 1970s and from then was active with all the salaried groups. He was party to the establishment of the Clinical Academic Staff Salaries Committee in 1978 and the agreement in 1979 on parity for Clinical Academics with their NHS colleagues. This was a major achievement for both the BMA and BDA in which he played a big part. He worked closely with the BMA over clinical academic and armed forces issues and with them and other staff side organisations through the General Whitely Council. He had a particular interest in superannuation and also supported his work colleagues in this issue as well as BDA members. He nurtured the BDA Dentsply Student Clinician Programme which today is a prestigious event involving all the UK dental schools. He loved to travel and was an outstanding success as the leader for the BDJ Study Tours to both China and Kenya.

His legacy of support for members goes from strength to strength

Pat had been a feature of BDA life for so many years and as a manager had the ability to identify talent in his team members and would ensure that they were given the chance to achieve their full potential. The legacy of support for individual members, and the network of local representatives which he established, still goes from strength to strength.

Pat retired in 1999 but ill health sadly dogged the latter years of his life and he was unable to enjoy fully the retirement he had planned so carefully. He was a devoted family man, intensely proud of his wife Joan and their two sons, Daniel and Robert, and it is to them we extend our deepest sympathies.