In no other field of medicine is the bond between teacher and student so close as it is in surgery. As has been pointed out by Sabiston,1 even though by leaving residency we may be separated from our mentors, their influence still exerts a strong pull on us and our practice. I was fortunate enough to be trained by one such person. Our chairman, Dr Z, was in many ways, not just in physical size, but in almost all other respects, a giant of a man. He dominated any room or any conversation that he entered. More importantly, he was a man who led by example. He had trained with David Skinner, MD, and George Block, MD, at The University of Chicago and, like them, believed that the most important conference was the weekly morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference.2