Cookeville, TN – James Gray, M.D. was presented with the twenty-seventh annual Fred H. Roberson Award on Thursday, May 28 at Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s monthly board of trustees meeting.
CRMC CEO Paul Korth made the presentation, citing Dr. Gray’s commitment and loyalty to the hospital, the betterment of healthcare in the community and his many years of providing medical services in the Upper Cumberland.
Following his residency and role as chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Hospital, Dr. Gray moved to Cookeville in 1980 where he joined OB/GYN Associates. He attended 4,494 obstetrical deliveries during his time in Cookeville and continued to provide medical care for women in the Upper Cumberland when he left OB/GYN Associates in 2004 to join the Tennessee Department of Health’s
Upper Cumberland regional office. There he provided specialty consultations in obstetrics and gynecology and oversight of clinical care.
Dr. Gray now spends much of his time dedicated to volunteer work. As president of the Putnam County Medical Society, he has recently spearheaded an effort to revitalize the physician organization – building its membership, offering CME educational events for providers, and ensuring that physicians in the county and region have representation at the state level for issues affecting health care and physicians. He has represented the group as a participant in the TMA Physician Leadership College.
Dr. Gray’s dedication to health care in the community and region is further demonstrated through his work as a volunteer physician for the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Volunteer Corps and the Upper Cumberland Tennessee Regional Medical Reserve Corps Unit #1345. He serves as the Medical Coordinator of the
Putnam RAM clinic, working with pre-med, pre-dental and other pre-health professionals for the clinic planned for March 2016.
In addition, Dr. Gray has been a strong supporter and physician lobbyist in support of a bill to repeal the 2001 TN Intractable Pain Treatment Act, and therefore, discourage the prescribing of opiates as first-line treatment for pain. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at the TTU Whitson-Hester School of Nursing.
He is a volunteer caregiver at Magnolia Place adult respite care ministry at First United Methodist Church and is a volunteer consultant for the Power of Putnam Community Coalition. Dr. Gray and his wife Marilyn have two children and four grandchildren.
The Roberson Award is named for Mr. Fred Roberson who served on the hospitals’ Board of Trustees for twenty-seven years. The award is presented annually to the individual who best exemplifies the same dedicated and loyal service to Cookeville Regional Medical Center and its patients as was demonstrated by Mr. Roberson. Previous recipients have been Dr. Thurman Shipley, H.S. Barnes, Dr. J.T. Moore, Jr., Dr. Claude Williams, Eleen Harkins, Jean Davis, Dr. William Francis, Senator Tommy Burks, Dr. William
Taylor, Reverend Lexie Freeman, Dr. Alex Case, Dr. Katherine Bertram, the CRMC Auxiliary, Linda Crawford, Dr. Walter Derryberry, Dr. J.T. DeBerry, Dr. Charles Womack, Dr. Opless Walker, Dr. Charles Jordan, Linda Buchanan, Dr. David Henson, Dr. Sullivan Smith, Dr. Jeff Crosier, Dr. Lee Ray Crowe and
Dr. Glenn Hall.
PHOTO: (left to right) – Daniel Coonce, Jr., Janet Gray Coonce, Emily Marie and Sarah Lynn Coonce, Marilyn Gray, Roberson Award recipient James Gray, M.D., CRMC CEO Paul Korth and CRMC Board of Trustee Chairman David Hatcher