David, and his wife Catriona, became members of APRS in 1997. David was a regular at APRS events and many of our members will have known him. He was at our AGM at Holyrood Park in 2023 only a few months before his death.
David was 97 at the time and seemed at least 25 years younger. As we climbed the hill for a geology talk at the quarry in the afternoon he kept up with the group on the rough ground. I (Kat) asked him what his secret was to being so fit at such a great age and he told me it was walking every day.
David was born in South Africa and studied medicine at Edinburgh going on to be a plastic surgeon. He married Catriona Dempster, who was a pediatrician and they had two children Fiona and Duncan.
David died on the 13th of November 2023 at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. He was laughing and joking with his cardiologist shortly before he died.
An extract from his obituary in a medical journal says:
“David was born on the 23rd of November 1925 in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 18, he joined the South African Artillery and served in Italy in 1944, and in Egypt in 1945 when he managed to climb the Great Pyramid all the way to the top. He was decorated on 4 occasions.
Following his war service, he studied medicine at Edinburgh University and after completing his training in general surgery he started his training in Plastic Surgery first in Glasgow then in London, Salisbury and Liverpool.
He then obtained an R.W. Johnson Fellowship in Miami with Ralph Millard, hence his special interest in Cleft lips and palates.
He was appointed Consultant in Liverpool, Lecturer in Plastic Surgery at the University of Liverpool and Member of the postgraduate advisory panel in general surgery.
Apart from being a superb teacher and a very skilled surgeon, David took an active part in The British Association of Plastic Surgeons and was elected to the Council on two occasions and then President in 1986.
He has also been Secretary of the BAPS research committee.
He was also a member British Society for Surgery of the Hand and a member of the National Research Committee of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery, The hand Journal and Advisor to the Royal College of Edinburgh for Merseyside. He was awarded the Kay Kilner prize in 1966 and the Mowlem award in 1970.
He published more than 60 papers and chapters in books.
David married Catriona Margaret Dempster, a Scottish Pediatrician In 1955, she had been a great support to David and predeceased him in 2022.
David and Catriona were extremely supportive of young trainees and even at the end of his life, David would inquire about any of his trainees who suffered ill health.
They had two children, Fiona and Duncan. If you visited the Maisels on Sundays you would often see David perched on a tree in freezing cold cutting branches while puffing on his pipe. The children would be playing football with the dog. They had no television in the household, but plenty of books,
Their daughter Fiona Maisels, PhD, is a Conservation Scientist, in the Africa program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, working in the forested countries of Central Africa, and is also a Professor at the University of Stirling.
Their son Duncan is a keen outdoorsman, who after a few years in the British Army, now lives in Canada and is passionately involved in the mountains as an outdoor educator, avalanche technician and guide.
David Maisels was a stalwart of British Plastic Surgery and will be sorely missed.”