Professor Ian Barnes died recently after a short illness. He was 68.

Born and brought up in Winchmore Hill, North London, he graduated from UCH in 1961, and after three years of remote and scarily ill-equipped practice in the Falkland Islands, returned to obtain his FDSRCS and a PhD under the guidance of Alan Boyde.

He developed and never lost a self-confident mastery of surgery, but soon opted for a lectureship in 'Dental Surgery', a far cry from contemporary specialisation, which allowed the Dean to direct his small team in such endeavours as were required across the curriculum. As a clinical teacher he was friendly but meticulous, always direct and analytical in his feedback, unstinting with his time and motivated by what would protect and benefit students and their patients in the future. An intensely practical man, and an accomplished researcher, he nevertheless retained a healthy cynicism of much dental research, managing his appreciative patients with a wisdom and kindness guided at least as much by astute clinical observations as by nebulous statistics. It was in surgical endodontics that he developed his greatest profile, authoring a benchmark colour atlas, serving the British Endodontic Society as President, and patenting the 'Barnes' apicectomy amalgam gun.

In 1983, he took a Chair at Newcastle, building a strong team of restorative lecturers whom he nurtured and promoted with characteristic modesty, kindness and legendary wit. In the mid-1990s, he responded to new challenges, first in Hong Kong and then in Malaysia.

In 2002, he returned to Northumberland, drove a mini-bus for the local accessibility service and became an adult literacy tutor. His voice became familiar to the visually impaired as a regular reader for the Talking Newspaper Service. His firm belief that true reward comes from what you put into life was reflected not just in his professional career but in the kindness and generosity of his many friends, especially in the weeks leading up to his death.

Ian is survived by his wife Jan, daughters Catherine and Judith, granddaughter Tilly, son-in-law, Paul and dog, Olive.

CB/DS/RW/JW