L. Ray Lawson
d. December 7, 2010
Date Died: December 07, 2010
L. Ray Lawson, MD, age 85, of Dallas, Texas died peacefully in his home surrounded by family at 10:57 AM on Tuesday, December 7, 2010, of pulmonary fibrosis.
Born November 23, 1925 in Decatur, Texas, the only child of Olmer Ray and Catherine Beason Lawson. Married March 23, 1963 to Ann McFadden of Dallas, Texas, who died on February 29, 1980.
At the age of 8, Lawson suffered a major illness accompanied by high fever that lasted for many weeks. When the fever broke and as he began to recover, he arrived at the personal realization that he wanted to be a doctor. During his childhood and teenage years, Lawson developed a very special bond with the doctor who cared for him, the late Dr. Charles Ingram of Decatur, Texas, who exposed him to many aspects of a medical practice, including making house calls in a horse and buggy. Ingram allowed Lawson to perform tasks around the clinic and in the lab, imparting not only the mechanics of medicine, but the essence of being a doctor.
In exchange for services, Dr. Ingram gave young Lawson a silver dollar every Christmas accompanied by the statement, "Any man can make a dollar, but it takes a wise man to save one." Lawson kept this collection of silver dollars for the duration of his life as a reminder of the great example Dr. Ingram provided through his mentorship.
After attending Decatur High School with Mr. Clint Forman, currently of Austin, Texas, his closest childhood friend, Lawson made his way to the University of Texas at Austin. Lawson soon left school for San Diego, California pursuing the exciting promise of military service as a medical corpsman in the Navy at the age of 18. To his mother's great relief, he was never deployed and returned after the war to attend college closer to home at North Texas University.
He quickly transferred to the Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston where he graduated in 1953. He had a general practice for two years and then entered a general surgical training program in Houston. In 1956, Lawson transferred from general surgery to orthopedic surgery under the personal tutelage and dedicated guidance of Dr. Charles Gregory (1919-1976). He became one of the first residents to graduate the fledgling program of orthopedics at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Upon graduating from orthopedic residency, Lawson sought to enter practice immediately. However, at the strong suggestion of Dr. Gregory, Lawson wrote a proposal for submission to The Fullbright Scholarship Program and was awarded a Fullbright scholarship grant to further his training and specialty study under Mr. David Lloyd Griffiths (1908-1997) and Sir John Charnley (1911-1982), both of The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic and District Hospital in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Lawson returned to Dallas and joined the Carrell Clinic and immediately thrived as a member of the historic practice started by William Beall Carrell, MD (1883-1944), Dallas' first orthopedic surgeon and co-founder of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Lawson found a home and family among the doctors of the Carrell Clinic, including W. Brandon Carrell, MD (1911-1981), Dorsey K Barns, MD, George Truett James, MD (1919-1984), and Henry H. Beckering, MD (1907-1982). As the clinic grew so did his sense of family. When asked who he wanted to invite to his eightieth birthday party, Lawson replied, "Well, all of my 14 partners because they are my family."
Lawson found need for his expertise in spinal surgery and fulfillment for his spirit of service in the development and growth of the special relationship between the Carrell Clinic and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Many pediatric scoliosis referrals were coming into Scottish Rite Hospital at the time and there was a growing need for a specialist in spinal issues. Lawson established the hospital's first scoliosis clinic and gave much of his time and effort to meet the demands of the growing hospital and its many patients.
Lawson trained with Paul Randall Harrington (1911-1980), founder of the Scoliosis Research Society, in the use of a groundbreaking surgical spinal implant called the Harrington Rod, developed by Harrington himself and used for the straightening and immobilization of the spine. Lawson developed anterior approaches to the spine with Arthur Ralph Hodgson (1915-1994), professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Hong Kong.
A founding member and fellow of the Scoliosis Research Society since 1966, Lawson received that organization