Roger Powell, pupil of Douglas Cockerell, has had a 50 year professional career as a rarebook conservator during which he has rebound many early manuscripts including the Book of Kells. His major contributions and innovations: meticulous records of the structure and physical evidence provided by the dismantled book; revival of the early practice of rounding and backing without a hammer and laying press; nonadhesive binding; a description (with Peter Waters) of the structure of the Stonyhurst Gospels; and continuing emphasis on the craft ideal of functional excellence. See also AATA 20-1551.