Wolf–Dieter Prieur, known universally by his friends and colleagues as Dieter, was born in 1927 in Breslau, Poland. Much of his childhood was spent on his grandfather's farm which generated fond memories for the rest of his life. Although a teenager during the Second World War, I only recall his mentioning it to me once. On seeing me attend to my bees, he recalled having to walk back home from the Eastern Front. Tired and hungry while passing an abandoned farm, he noticed some beehives. Realizing with his country upbringing that some honey might be available, he opened a hive and found a ham concealed under the lid. This enabled him to survive and he returned to the great surprise and welcome of his family.

Dieter qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Giessen in 1957 and opened a practice in Duisberg where he began to operate, becoming interested in orthopaedics. I met him for the first time when we both lectured at an International Joint Surgery Conference organized in Lyons, France, by Dr Francois Perot.

In 1976, Dieter was appointed to a new post as Secretary of the AO VET group (https://aovet.aofoundation.org/about-ao-vet/news/news-2019/2019_03-in-memoriam-wolf-dieter-prieur) at Waldenburg in Switzerland, holding this post until retirement in 1992. During this period, he spent his time suggesting, organizing and frequently attending and contributing to AO VET courses in many countries in Europe as well as North America and Australia. Through the Straumann company, he developed special drill and saw guides for his hook plates for his varisation operation for hip dysplasia and he performed many such surgeries.

In those earlier days, the main AO VET courses were held in Davos in December; with time allocated daily for winter sport, Dieter did not enjoy skiing, but preferred to take the ski lift to lunch and walk on the mountains during the middle of the day. Although he enjoyed meeting his many veterinary friends, he was also quite content with his own company. When visiting him in Waldenbug, I recall asking him if he had any souvenirs of his many foreign trips. His response was ‘why I would have an ethnographic museum in my house?’ At home in Waldenburg, he would go out in snow shoes, enjoyed fishing and shooting and was amused by winning shooting competitions against the local farmers.

Dieter was involved in editing and contributing to the AO VET Small Animal Manual with Bruce Hohn, Wade Brinker, Terry Braden and others as well as an Orthopaedic and Traumatology textbook with Prof. Klaus Bonath.

Part of his job involved liaising with the current president of the AO VET group. The late Geoff Sumner Smith reported that Dieter would often phone him in the middle of the night—forgetting the significant time difference between Switzerland and Canada!

One idea was to run 1-day courses for undergraduate students, where they could repair fractures using AO instrumentation on plastic tubing and model bones, following short talks and videos before each exercise. In England, these courses were held over a week at the Royal Veterinary College for final year students of each of the four vet schools, thanks to generous technical support from the nearby Straumann company, who also paid for students' coach transport.

Dieter always came and stayed at our home for those weeks. I always asked him to give an opening talk on the History of AO and AO VET. This regularly contained spelling errors. One year, I offered to correct his text before he had the slides produced. At the subsequent lecture the corrections were present, but Dieter had now managed to insert new errors! I still picture Dieter in his brown pullover and corduroy trousers, spectacles pushed up over his forehead, enthusiastically discussing details of their repair with a small student group. Without fail, these were regularly reported to be ‘probably the best day of their entire veterinary course’.

Dieter retired in 1992, moving to a rural old mill property in Germany with his partner Sabine. There, he was able to cultivate the land and look after a wide variety of animals, always including a small dog, while Sabine continued in her practice. Each year we regularly exchanged letters. However, by 2007 they had parted, Dieter's letter explaining that their age difference had become a stumbling block. He maintained the farm on his own, although gradually finding it harder and needing assistance as he aged. In 2011, he moved to a retirement home, where he was able to be nearer to his son and to keep his dog. In 2016, he lost his great friend Geoff Sumner Smith with whom he had regularly communicated. Professors Uli Matis and Roberto Kostlin kept in touch with him but by 2017 Dieter had found communication in English to be very difficult and he no longer replied to my letters or phone call. Sadly, the end came in February 2019 when searching for his dog who had run off, he sustained a femur fracture from which he failed to recover following surgery.

Dieter Prieur was a friend to many and instrumental in the promotion and development of AO VET. Those of us who became orthopaedic surgeons particularly through the 1980s have cause to be grateful for his continuing efforts and encouragement and without him many of our ongoing international relationships that we take for granted might never have developed.

沃尔夫·迪特尔·普赖尔（Wolf-Dieter Prieur）于1927年出生于波兰布雷斯劳，他的朋友和同事都以他的饮食习惯而闻名。他的童年大部分时间都花在祖父的农场上，这为他的余生留下了美好的回忆。虽然在第二次世界大战期间是个少年，但我只记得他曾经对我提过一次。当看到我照看蜜蜂时，他回忆起不得不从东线回家。通过一个废弃的农场时，他又累又饿，注意到一些蜂箱。他意识到自己的国家长大后可能会得到一些蜂蜜，所以他打开了一个蜂巢，发现一个藏在盖子下的火腿。这使他得以生存，他回到了家人的惊喜和欢迎中。

Dieter于1957年获得了吉森（Giessen）的兽医资格，并在杜伊斯堡（Duisberg）开办了一家诊所，开始对骨科感兴趣。当我俩都在弗朗索瓦·佩罗特博士在法国里昂举行的一次国际联合手术会议上演讲时，我第一次见到他。

1976年，迪特尔（Dieter）被任命为AO VET小组秘书（https://aovet.aofoundation.org/about-ao-vet/news/news-2019/2019_03-in-memoriam-wolf-dieter- prieur）在瑞士的Waldenburg任职，直到1992年退休。在此期间，他花了很多时间为欧洲，北美和澳大利亚的许多国家提供建议，组织并经常参加AO VET课程并为之做出贡献。通过Straumann公司，他为钩板开发了特殊的钻和锯导板，以进行髋关节发育不良的变体手术，并进行了许多此类手术。

在早期，AO VET的主要课程于12月在达沃斯举行。Dieter每天都有时间进行冬季运动，因此他不喜欢滑雪，而是喜欢在一天中途乘坐滑雪缆车吃午餐并在山上行走。尽管他喜欢结识许多兽医朋友，但他对自己的公司也很满意。在Waldenbug拜访他时，我记得曾问过他，他是否有许多国外旅行的纪念品。他的回答是“为什么我的房子里要建一个民族博物馆？” 在瓦尔登堡的家中，他穿着雪鞋外出，喜欢钓鱼和射击，并因赢得了与当地农民的射击比赛而感到高兴。

Dieter参与了Bruce Hohn，Wade Brinker，Terry Braden等人的AO VET小动物手册的编辑工作，并与Klaus Bonath教授一起编写了骨科和创伤学教科书。

他的部分工作包括与AO VET集团现任总裁联络。已故的杰夫·萨姆纳·史密斯（Geoff Sumner Smith）报告说，迪特经常在深夜打电话给他-忘记了瑞士和加拿大之间的巨大时差！

一种想法是为大学生开设为期1天的课程，他们可以在每次运动前进行简短的演讲和录取视频，然后在塑料管和模型骨骼上使用AO仪器修复骨折。在英格兰，由于附近的Straumann公司提供了慷慨的技术支持，这些课程在皇家兽医学院为四个兽医学校中的每一个的最后一年的学生举办了一周的课程，他们也为学生的教练交通支付了费用。

迪特（Dieter）总是来这里呆了几周。我一直要求他就AO和AO VET的历史作开场演讲。这通常包含拼写错误。一年后，我提出在他制作幻灯片之前纠正他的文字。在随后的演讲中，我们进行了更正，但是Dieter现在设法插入了新的错误！我仍在用Dieter的棕色套头衫和灯芯绒长裤想象着眼镜，他的额头上戴着眼镜，热情地与一个小学生小组讨论修理的细节。毫无疑问，这些定期被报告为“可能是整个兽医课程中最好的一天”。

Dieter于1992年退休，与他的搭档Sabine一起搬到德国的一处乡村老磨坊。在那里，他得以耕种土地并照顾各种各样的动物，总是包括一只小狗，而萨宾则继续练习。每年我们定期交换信件。然而，到了2007年，他们分开了，迪特尔（Dieter）的信解释说，他们的年龄差异已成为绊脚石。他逐渐维护自己的农场，尽管随着年龄的增长逐渐发现农场更加困难并需要帮助。2011年，他搬到了养老院，在那里他可以更靠近儿子并养狗。2016年，他失去了曾与他定期交流的好朋友Geoff Sumner Smith。乌利·马蒂斯（Uli Matis）教授和罗伯托·科斯林（Roberto Kostlin）教授保持联系，但到2017年，迪特（Dieter）发现用英语进行交流非常困难，他不再回复我的来信或电话。可悲的是，结束于2019年2月，当时他正在寻找逃跑的狗，他患有股骨骨折，但手术后未能康复。

Dieter Prieur是许多人的朋友，在促进和发展AO VET方面发挥了重要作用。我们这些尤其是在1980年代成为整形外科医生的人，对他的不断努力和鼓励深表感激，没有他，我们认为理所当然的许多国际关系可能永远不会发展。