There can be little doubt that when a definitive history of health economics is finally written it will reveal the multilayered contribution to its advancement attributable to Alan Williams. His death in June 2005 marks an end to his direct influence but his legacy cannot be denied. Much of the topology of the evaluation landscape that we take for granted was still primeval swamp when Alan Williams began his early forays into the as yet uncharted territory that was to become all to familiar to today’s health economist. His 1972 Social Indicators paper with Tony Culyer and Bob Lavers documents an approach to the measurement of health status withstands the test of time.