Thomas D. Rees (February 3, 1927 – November 14, 2013) was an American plastic surgeon who co-founded the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa in 1957, an organization that utilizes small aircraft to deliver medical care to remote areas in Africa.^[1]

Rees was born in Nephi, Utah. He entered the University of Utah at sixteen and graduated with a medical degree by the age of 21.^[2] He served as a U.S. Navy officer in 1945 and again from 1957 to 1958.^[2] Rees trained in general and plastic surgery at the Genesee Hospital and New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.^[2] He completed a fellowship in London under Archibald McIndoe and Harold Gillies.^[2]

In 1956, while on fellowship in London, Rees traveled to Tanzania, where he provided emergency medical treatment to a severely injured local.^[2] This experience motivated him to help establish the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa alongside Michael Wood and Archibald McIndoe.^[2]

Rees served as a professor at the New York University School of Medicine and as a president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.^[2] He organized an annual symposium for plastic surgeons, which attracted participants globally.^[2] He retired in the mid-1980s due to osteoarthritis and moved to Santa Fe, where he pursued sculpting inspired by African cultures and wildlife.^[2]