Professor James Percy Moss, BDS, LDS, FDS, PhD, DOrth, MOrth
1933–2010
Jim Moss died on 14 June 2010. He was ‘the most famous British orthodontist in the world’ to quote Professor Bob Lee at Jim’s memorial service. Jim was a giant of a man. He devoted over 50 years to orthodontics in Britain and across the world. He had immense achievements as a clinician, teacher, academic, and in fostering the development of orthodontic fellowship and understanding in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Jim had an amazingly powerful voice and could readily dispense with a microphone. He was affectionately known across the world as ‘the voice’. His enthusiasm, energy and commitment to everything he did was boundless. Yet he was a quite humble man who was always very approachable, helpful and caring.
British orthodontics and the whole international orthodontic community has benefited from Jim’s life in a way that can hardly be surpassed.
Jim was born in 1933, one of five children, and brought up in North London where he was Head Boy Prefect at Preston Manor County School. Jim started his dental career at the National Dental Hospital of University College London and qualified in 1956. He joined the Orthodontic Department at NDH a year later and progressed through the department as Registrar, Senior Registrar, Senior Lecturer, Consultant in 1967, Professor in 1975, and Head of the Department of Orthodontics, University College London Dental School. He played a large part in designing the new orthodontic department when UCH Dental School moved to a new hospital in 1963. When the UCH Dental School closed in 1990 he joined the orthodontic department at the Royal London Hospital until his retirement in January 2004. Many students over generations at UCH and the Royal London were enthused by his teaching and were inspired to join the orthodontic specialty.
Jim was Professor Emeritus in Orthodontics of London University, Honorary Consultant, the Royal Hospitals Trust and University College Hospitals, Professor of Orthodontics, St. Bartholomew’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Visiting Professor to the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, and Fellow of University College London. He was an Honorary Member of the United Kingdom Craniofacial Society, SIDO, the European Orthodontic Society and the World Federation of Orthodontists, Past President of the European Begg Society of Orthodontics, United Kingdom Craniofacial Society, and the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics.
Jim devoted a large part of his life to the BSSO. He was Treasurer in 1971 for seven years, President in 1980, Editor in 1983 for five years and Curator from 1988 until the founding of the British Orthodontic Society in 1994. Jim was a member of the BSSO Committee on Dental and Orthodontic Auxiliaries which made recommendation to the GDC in 1973 on the ‘The Extended Role of Dental Ancillaries’.
Jim was the Northcroft Lecturer in 1987, he was granted a BSSO Special Service Award and elected to Life Membership of the British Orthodontic Society.
Jim was the first Curator of the BOS and remained in post until his death. The Museum has pride of place in the BOS Office in London. When the BSSO no longer had space for the museum and proposed to disband it, Jim Moss took charge and found a home to house the two outstanding display cabinets and all the exhibits and books, firstly at UCH and later at the Royal London Hospital. It is entirely due to his dedication that the BOS has such a splendid historic collection. After the move to the new BOS Offices, Jim continued to work hard to add to the collection and to catalogue the exhibits. Jim was very committed to all the archives of the BOS and the founding societies and spent many hours at the BOS Office rationalizing thousands of historic documents. Jim dedicated himself to the preservation of the unique Leighton collection of serial models, radiographs and films.
Throughout his academic life Jim was actively involved in research and published numerous papers. He was one of the first to explore the use of electromyography for which he was awarded a PhD by the University of London. His later research was carried out at the Rayne Institute. He advanced the innovative area of laser 3D mapping of the face.
Jim was much in demand as an examiner for many universities across the UK and the world, as well as for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Jim lectured widely throughout the world from Scandinavia to Australasia. In the USA, Jim was the John Valentine Mershon Memorial Lecturer in 1974 and 1984 and was awarded the Louise Ada Jarabak Memorial International Orthodontic Teachers and Research Award in 2004.
Jim Moss was very involved in furthering knowledge of the Begg technique. He established the UK Begg Study Group at the UCL Dental School in the early 1970s until the School closed in 1990 and secured many world famous speakers to visit the Group. Jim was a very supportive member of the European Begg Society of Orthodontics and was President of the Society.
Jim became a Fellow in Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1959. He was elected to the Board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in May 1984 and served until he retired from the Board in March 1998. He was elected Vice Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery in 1994. He was awarded the Charles Tomes Lectureship in 1985 and was the T. C. White Lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians of Glasgow in 1989. During his period of tenure on the Faculty Board Jim held numerous positions of responsibility, including Chairman of Postgraduate Education Committee and of the Examining Committee in Orthodontics.
Jim Moss was not adverse to taking up controversial tasks which he saw as beneficial to British orthodontics. He was an examiner and later Chairman of the British Orthodontic Certification Board at a time when the Board was disapproved of by many leading British orthodontists. He went on to be very involved in setting up the European Board of Orthodontics which was established in 1996. Jim was the Secretary and an examiner. Jim was due to receive an award for his services to the European Board at the EOS Congress in June 2010 in Slovenia. Unfortunately he was already too unwell to attend and his award was presented to his family by Professor Francesca Miotti at Jim’s memorial service in Barnet on 20th June.
In another contentious area, Jim agreed to chair the Occlusal Index Committee set up in 1986 following the Schanschieff Report. As a result of his Committee’s report the Government provided funding to develop the IOTN and PAR indices at Cardiff and Manchester universities. These indices are now the core of NHS orthodontic practice in the UK.
The achievement for which Jim Moss will be most remembered throughout the world was his long standing commitment to the European Orthodontic Society. Jim joined the EOS in 1964, he was the Honorary Secretary for seven years from 1984 until 2001 and was elected EOS President in 1996. He held the EOS Congress in Brighton and did much to publicise the newly established BOS to the international community.
The EOS awarded Jim the Sheldon Friel Memorial lecture in 2002 and he was made an Honorary Member of the EOS in 2002. During his leadership of the EOS the Society flourished and expanded. Membership from former Soviet Bloc countries was greatly encouraged and delegates and speakers from all over the world came to the EOS Congress. Jim was also very instrumental in involving the European national societies in the EOS and set up the Forum of National Societies in 1998 including representatives from EFOSA and FEO.
Jim Moss became a Fellow of the World Federation of Orthodontists in 1996 and was made an Honorary Member in 2005 in recognition for his outstanding service to orthodontics.
The bedrock of Jim’s life was his beloved wife Mary. Mary was immensely supportive and was frequently at his side at EOS meetings. Jim appeared at the EOS Silver Mill competition in Brighton dressed as King Henry VIIIth and Mary as his Queen. Jim devoted the last years of his life to caring for Mary in her prolonged terminal illness. Sadly Mary predeceased him by less than three years. Jim was known to BOS members as a committed Christian. The full scale of his immense involvement with the High Barnet Baptist Church was revealed at Jim’s Memorial service. He was preacher, organist, councillor and teacher. Jim’s talents as a gardener, chef and water colour painter were highlighted. His home in Barnet was a haven of hospitality.
Jim is survived by his three children, Richard, Elizabeth and Tim.