John Blair Hardie died at home in Dundee on Sunday 19 October 2008.

After training at Guy's Hospital, London, he joined the Royal Army Dental Corps, attached to the 4th Cameron Highlanders, and was posted to the Dutch West Indies in 1939.

Later, in Italy, he became part of a team undertaking maxillofacial restoration, and when he came back to Britain he joined Sir Archibald McIndoe's team at East Grinstead. For his services in the specialised field of reconstructive surgery he was awarded the MBE, and subsequently became a Fellow in Dental Surgery, of the Royal College of Surgeons. He bought his dental practice in Montrose in 1949.

He was President of the North of Scotland branch of the BDA between 1960 and 1962 and an active member of the GDC. He sold the Montrose practice in 1973, buying a house in Dundee, and a flat in Edinburgh, where he was a consultant for the Edinburgh Dental Day Hospital at the Western General. During this period he developed a particular interest in working with patients with fear of dentistry, and used both hypnosis and counselling approaches in this work.

At the same time he started training for the priesthood, and was ordained priest in 1976 in Dundee Cathedral. He had a parish at St Martin's, Dundee, for five years. For the following five years he was at Dundee Cathedral. He then became Assistant Priest at the Church of the Holy Rood, Carnoustie, and at St Salvador's Dundee, from which he eventually 'retired' when he was 80, but still carried on taking a Tuesday service there, until it became physically too difficult.

After the death of his first wife, Margaret, he married Rachel in 1994, and enjoyed her love and care for over 14 years. Now his family includes three children, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. In the last six years he contended with cancer, a major heart attack and renal failure. These he bore with fortitude and humour; he never lost the merry twinkle in his eye.

His Requiem Mass was on 24 October, at St. Salvador's Church, Dundee. It was attended by clergy and dental colleagues, family, and friends from all over the country, and the day was a fitting end, and celebration, of his 92 years.