&NA;Donald Balfour was born August 22, 1882, in Toronto, Canada, and obtained his undergraduate education at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute. He was graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1906. During his internship at the Hamilton City Hospital, he became influenced by Ingersoll Olmstead, a distinguished surgeon, who recommended him to the Mayo brothers. In 1907, he became a junior surgeon and in 1912 head of a section of general surgery. In 1910 he married Carrie Mayo, daughter of William J. Mayo. While displaying an interest in numerous surgical fields (having written extensively on tonsillectomy, thyroid surgery, and biliary surgery), and having devised numerous instruments (abdominal retractor, operating table, operating room mirror), he gradually focused his research and writings to that of gastrointestinal surgery. One of his early papers was a method of performing a safer anastomosis in the rectum by means of a tubestent, the subject of this Classic article. Balfour received recognition from the Mayo Clinic, as well as from numerous national and international organizations. He became director of the Department of Surgery in 1937, and he held honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Edinburgh, and Australasia. He was one of the founders of the World Medical Organization and a charter member of the World Health Organization and of the Central Surgical Association. Balfour died July 25, 1963, in his 81st year.