Dr. Ernest D. Cronin, MD believed that it is a great privilege to be a physician trained in plastic surgery. It is a wonderful specialty that is positively changing the lives of patients every day all over the world, while giving great satisfaction to its practitioners. Plastic surgery is a field of medicine that deals with special techniques of repair directed at restoring the form and function of aesthetic and reconstructive problems all over the body.

Dr. Cronin, a Houston native, is a graduate of St. Thomas High School. He attended Tulane University and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1971. He interned at Kansas City General Hospital and received general surgery training at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston. He returned to the Medical Branch in Galveston for Otolaryngology residency training from 1973-76. Following that, he completed the Plastic Surgery residency at St. Joseph Hospital Houston in 1978.

He practiced as a member of the Cronin, Brauer, Biggs Clinic Association for 10 years beginning in 1978. He and Dr. Benjamin Cohen formed the Cohen and Cronin Clinic Association in 1988, 

Dr. Cronin was board certified by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

He is an emeritus Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery, at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Dr. Cronin served as President of the Texas Society of Plastic Surgeons 2009-2010, Chief of Staff of  St. Joseph Hospital (2002-2004), and President of the Houston Society of Plastic Surgeons (1993-1994). He served as head of the plastic surgery section at St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston for over a decade.

Dr. Cronin was the Medical Director of The Thomas Cronin and Raymond Brauer Cleft Palate and Facial Clinic from 1987 until 2014.

He was the Founder and past Medical Director (1983-2016) of Operation San Jose, which has provided plastic surgery services to children with cleft lip and palate in Latin America since 1983.

Dr. Cronin was chosen by his peers to be included in The Best Doctors in America and Best Doctors, Inc for more than 15 years.

Dr. Cronin was one of Marvin's Angels who provided care for special patients brought to him in Houston by Mr. Marvin Zindler, a well -known Houston TV celebrity. Marvin also chronicled several Operation San Jose cleft palate mission trips to Latin America for Eye Witness News KPRC TV CH 13.

 "Dr. Cronin [is] one of the finest plastic surgeons in the country." Marvin Zindler KPRC TV 3/01/2007. 

Dr. Ernest Cronin practiced plastic surgery in Houston for 38 years, helping to educate more than 200 plastic surgery residents. He retired in 2016 when he developed appendiceal adenocarcinoma.

Dr. Cronin battled the 'Fiend' of cancer beginning 2016. He credited Divine Providence, the good care of his doctors, and the prayers of his wife, family, friends, and the entire Communion of Saints for his wonderful life.

After his cancer diagnosis, Dr. Cronin turned to a writing career. He published The Healing Mission of Plastic Surgery in 2020, and Family Reading Time in 2022. He lived a wonderful life with Candy, his wife of 56 years, in Katy, Texas, near children and grandchildren.