Percy M. Butler led a remarkable life – in the process surviving two world wars, publishing over 100 scholarly papers on a wide array of topics, becoming an accomplished artist, and living to the age of 102. Percy’s publishing career began in 1935 and has yet to end with co-authored papers still in the works two years after his death in 2015. Early in 2016 we began to contact colleagues to gauge their interest in contributing original research papers to a volume that would cover many aspects of Percy’s work as well as to honor him for a long and distinguished career. The response was overwhelming and immediate so we decided to move forward with this project. A great many of the authors involved in this project had interactions with Percy over the years, many having worked very closely with him. All were influenced by his seminal work in dental development and by the breadth of his knowledge and interests