Professor Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915): Lest we forget

•Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915), the distinguished Bavarian psychiatrist and neuropathologist, passed away a hundred years ago.•Although widely known by name through the eponym ’Alzheimer’s disease’, much fewer have appreciated his fuller legacy.•Based on his official biography and other sources, this article neatly summarises Professor Alzheimer’s life and work.•A special centenary photograph of Alzheimer’s grave in Frankfurt is included.

December 19th 2015 marks the centennial anniversary of the death of the great Bavarian psychiatrist and neuropathologist, Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915), a man immortalised by the still incurable dementing process described by him in 1906 and firmly established in his name. Notwithstanding the great wealth of research into the history of Alzheimer’s disease and legacy, the life of this exemplary clinician remains less than widely appreciated today, and it is the purpose of this brief reminiscence to retell the story of the pioneering neuropsychiatrist in this centenary year of his passing.