Medical practice and the welfare of patients were blessed when there appeared on the scene someone who asked not for personal gain and was also willing to serve as a champion and joust the forces organized for self-serving agendas. Anthony (Tony) Dwyer is a true modern hero. As the “front man” for the organization of a American Board of Spine Surgery he “led the charge” against a parochial medical establishment in an admirable fashion. Born in Melbourne, Australia of Irish-Australian parents he competed with 4 siblings and struggled to obtain a medical education. Good fortune began to smile on him when, as an intern, at St. Vincent’s Hospital, he had the good fortune to work with Sir Harry Crock. This good fortune continued in Oswestry (England) for orthopedic training at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and then the Orthopaedic Department at the Queen Mary Hospital (Hong Kong) under the direction of Prof. A. R. Hodgson. From there to Australia, Boston (Massachusetts), Australia, Little Rock (Arkansas), New Orleans (Louisiana), and Denver (Colorado) Tony Dwyer has taken the measure of his peers and his patients and we have all benefited from this. After 10 years on the faculty of the University of Colorado he shifted his expertise to the Spine Service at the Denver Health Medical Center. Few in the practice of spine surgery have had better training. Few also, in spine surgery, have had as devoted a wife as Judy Dwyer who has gone along with all of this.