Dr John Rankin (1923-1981) is one of the many distinguished alumni of the former University Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Stobhill Hospital Glasgow. While his varied international career encompassed pulmonary physiology, occupational medicine and public health, he remains best remembered in the United Kingdom for his early stroke publications. In a series of articles published 50 years ago in the Scottish Medical Journal he described early rehabilitative stroke medicine using a novel grading system. Half a century on Rankin's eponymous stroke scale has become the endpoint of choice in acute stroke trials. This paper describes Rankin's remarkable career and the legacy of his work, with a particular focus on his stroke research and grading system.