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OBITUARY PROFESSOR K. J. DENNIS Professor Kenneth John Dennis died shortly before Christmas 1989. For many years he had been fighting an illness, which was ultimately to be fatal. Few, though, would have noticed any difference in his wholehearted commitment to the Hospital and the University during that time. John Dennis took up his appointment as Professor in Human Reproduction and Obstetrics in Southampton in 1972, where he was largely responsible for the establishment of the Department of Human Reproduction and Obstetrics. As a clinician he absorbed many of the social problems of gynaecology, an area in which he made significant scientific contributions. His interests were widespread in the Southampton community, including, typically, groups which were disadvantaged. He was generous with the time he gave to counselling doctors and others who would frequently see him in his office in the Princess Anne Hospital. Born in Czechoslovakia, his parents died when he was a child. He was brought up in Scotland from the age of 10 and stayed there. He qualified MB ChB in Edinburgh and obtained much of his obstetrical and gynaecological training in Sir Dugald Baird’s Department in Aberdeen University, which left an indelible imprint on his attitudes to his subject and his patients. His links with the Galton Institute were editorial, for he advised on many papers that subsequently appeared in the Journal of Biosocial Science or Biology and Society. John Dennis will be greatly missed in Southampton and in the wider professional field. | ||||||