Scotsman Obituaries: Howard Moody, oral pathologist who helped identify casualties of the Lockerbie bombing​

Howard Moody, resplendent in his Royal College of Surgeons gown

Dr Geoffrey Howard Moody who died on 25 March, age 81, was one of a small team of dentists who helped identify victims of the 1988 Lockerbie disaster. It was a defining moment in his distinguished career, when the focus of his work in Oral Pathology broadened to include Forensic Dentistry.

Howard was born in Stafford in 1943 to Geoffrey and Doris Moody. The family moved to Edinburgh in 1948 when Howard’s father was appointed Chief Dental Officer for Edinburgh Corporation. Howard was educated at Melville College in Edinburgh.

The highlight of his school career was a lecture, organised by a forward-looking headmaster, on Voluntary Service Overseas. Howard was hooked and on leaving school spent an influential year in Papua New Guinea, teaching and working in health clinics with the Anglican Mission, the beginning of a lifelong connection with the country.

Returning to Edinburgh University he graduated Bachelor in Dental Surgery in 1968 and quickly followed this with a Fellowship in Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons (Edin) and a PhD, based on the fibrinolytic activity of human saliva, from Edinburgh University.

In 1974 Howard married Alison Birse, a recent dental graduate. Early dates included a study of the best method for collecting saliva samples!

After a few years they returned to Papua New Guinea to be part of a team successfully setting up a School of Dentistry at the University in Port Moresby.

On their return to Edinburgh in 1980, LW Deubert, Professor of Dentistry at the University of Papua and New Guinea, wrote: “Thanks to Howard’s efforts we now have a creditable oral pathology set-up which functions. As he will no doubt regale you with glee, now that it is behind him, not one piece of equipment ever arrives here in working order. Howard has become a competent maintenance engineer on top of his other accomplishments.”

In 1984 Howard became a Member of the Royal College of Pathologists by examination and in 1996 was invited to take up a Fellowship by the same college. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Oral Pathology at Edinburgh University and honorary consultant to Lothian Health Board in 1986.

Howard was an inspiring and valued teacher to undergraduate and postgraduate students alike, and continued this work alongside clinical pathology until the closure of the Edinburgh Dental Hospital in 1993.

The mainstream component of his teaching then became the preparation and examination of candidates for the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, offering courses towards postgraduate diplomas in Singapore, Riyadh, Brunei and Hong Kong as well as in Edinburgh.

Howard found a second home in the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. In 1988 he was first elected to the Dental Council and served the College in numerous and varied roles thereafter.

Professor Sir Nairn Wilson recalls that in the 1990s, when he was Dean and Howard was the “masterful” Secretary to the Faculty, they “formed a great team when it came to interfaculty negotiations and diplomacy – Howard always ensuring that we worked within relevant College regulations while keeping the Board of the Faculty onside, in a manner which even Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister fame would admire and applaud.

"While always the consummate, charming gentleman in meetings, Howard was quick ‘to smell any rats’ and devise plans to sidestep traps, typically with an elegant swerve that would leave the other side wrong-footed.”

In 2004 he was elected Vice Dean of the Dental Faculty and in 2008 honoured with a Fellowship to the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh ad hominem.

In 1988 the Lockerbie bombing and subsequent need for dental identification saw an upturn in Howard’s engagement with forensic odontology.

He was appointed Forensic Odontologist for Lothian and Borders Police and provided evidence in numerous bite mark cases and in other assaults, most notably the 2014 World’s End Murders retrial.

He lectured extensively and in 2004 was appointed examiner in Forensic Odontology for the Diploma on Medical Jurisprudence of the Society of Apothecaries, London.

Howard is survived by Alison and their children, Philip, Rachel and Jonathan, and by his sister, Jennifer.

He was a protective, strong and encouraging father, and a loving grandfather to Kirsty, Lochlan, Alana, Fraser, Rose and Sol. He was known for his welcome, hospitality and generosity.

A member of Christ Church, Morningside throughout his life, Howard held many roles, from choirboy to vestry member; most of all he was friend and counsellor.

Howard had a lifelong fascination with “rivers, lochs, fish and all manner of sub-aqueous creatures” and greatly enjoyed freshwater fishing in Scottish lochs.

His son Philip recalls family holidays in the highlands, “building dams in rivers, building rafts in lochs, fishing at night, watching the salmon jumping at dawn."

Philip adds:”He instilled in his children and all those around him a deep love of nature, kindness, and moral certainty. For me this is his legacy, and our enduring responsibility.”

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