COOKEVILLE – Lee Ray Crowe, M.D. was presented with the twenty-fifth annual Fred H. Roberson Award on Thursday, May 16 at Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s annual Service Awards Banquet. CRMC CEO Paul Korth made the presentation, citing Dr. Crowe’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.
Having been nominated for the Roberson Award by a fellow physician, Dr. Crowe is a respected medical doctor among the hospital staff, physicians, the community, patients and their families. This humble physician has been a pillar in the medical field for our community for nearly 30 years. He has seen thousands of patients and someone described him as one who “treats everyone with the utmost of respect, whether that person is a peer, patient, nurse or family member.” He also has been described as an “unsung hero of the medical staff” who “has faithfully provided care to some of the sickest patient imaginable- patients with renal failure.”
Dr. Crowe is known for his dedication to patients, and has always strived to go above and beyond in caring for them, being methodical in his approach to things and he is very conscientious in wanting to do the right thing. One commended him for “having brought a level of excellence to the medical staff.”
Dr. Crowe came to Cookeville and started his practice in 1984 and joined the physician’s group at Cookeville Regional Medical Group in 2009. In 1971, he received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee for Health Sciences in Memphis. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Tennessee hospitals as well as a fellowship in Nephrology at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. He and his wife Inez have three daughters who are each married, two grandsons and two granddaughters.
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, and Dr. Jeff Crosier.