Obituary

1921 - 2007

Roderick Cawson died on 25 April 2008, just two days after his 86th birthday, in King's College Hospital where he had qualified 60 years earlier, first in dentistry and subsequently in medicine.

After serving in the RAF from 1944-8, Rod was appointed to a Senior Lectureship in the Department of Oral Pathology at King's College London. He obtained his MD degree from London University and later the FRCPath.

In 1962, he became Senior Lecturer in the Department of Dental Medicine at Guy's Hospital Dental School. In 1966, he was appointed Head of the new Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology and not long afterwards to the established University of London Chair of Oral Medicine and Pathology that he held until his retirement in 1986.

On retirement, Rod's work accelerated as he achieved Emeritus status. He continued to contribute to the UK Salivary Gland Tumour Panel, and write his texts from the Guy's Department of Surgery and the Eastman Dental Hospital.

Rod received many awards and appointments for his academic achievements. He was the first to carry out a statistical survey of oral cancer in England and Wales, the first to describe the features of oral tuberculosis following the introduction of chemotherapy and to recognise the malignant potential of chronic candidiasis. He made a significant contribution to our understanding of candidiasis. But, above all, Rod was an outstandingly gifted author, producing a litany of extremely readable textbooks which became standard undergraduate and postgraduate reading.

Rod was revered by all and sought out for his many talents and encyclopaedic knowledge. He was engaging with an infectious sense of humour that was always in good taste. He had a love for Suffolk and its countryside in which Rod and his wife Diana had an Elizabethan cottage. Dentistry owes a lot to Diana, who supported him for all those years as he churned out text after text. The night that he died, Rod said goodbye to Diana, his life long love and companion. With a smile on his face, he said “now, don’t burn my books and papers.” No Rod, we can’t do that. You live on in these for many decades to come.

Michael Gleeson, Professor of Otolaryngology, King’s College London
M N Naylor, Emeritus Professor of Periodontology