LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER

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A FAMILY STORY · 1979

My father, Dr. Luther Bert Adair, Sr., arrived at Meharry Medical College in 1979 to lead the Department of Radiology. He served as Chairman from 1979 through 1989 — nine years during which he helped the department acquire its first CT  scanner and became one of the few African-American neuroradiologists in  the country at that time.

As The Tennessee Tribune reported in its 2011  feature on the Moore family Meharry dynasty, my father had been raised  in foster care before reconnecting with his uncle, Elder Earl W. Moore — the patriarch of a remarkable extended family that has produced ten physicians and one PA (physician assistant) across multiple generations, only two of them did not graduate from Meharry. For nine years, my father gave Meharry his clinical excellence, his teaching, and his  belief that medicine was a vocation of service to the underserved. He  carried that conviction throughout his career.

He passed away on April 4, 2005, just as I  was completing my third year of medical school at Meharry. That same  academic year, the yearbook lists me among the Junior Medical Class and  the Radiology and Anatomical Sciences Student Organization — a small  detail that, in hindsight, reads like a quiet handing-of-the-torch.

PLATE II —  Dr. Luther Bert Adair, Sr.  served as Chairman of Meharry Medical College from 1979 through 1989.

A SECOND GENERATION · A RETURNING TRADITION.

My sister, Dr. Candace B. Adair, MD, FAPA, and I both graduated from Meharry School of Medicine in 2006. Candace became  the first female physician in the Moore family lineage, completing her Psychiatry training from Meharry Medical College, residency from Baylor College of Medicine, and fellowship from The Cambridge Hospital affiliated with the Beth Israel Deaconess (BID) and now practicing Child and Adolescent  Psychiatry at Bene Wellness, PC in Atlanta, Georgia.

Our brother, Jonathan Adair, MS, holds a master's degree in counseling psychology and works in Nashville to help  homeless veterans access mental health care services through a local non-profit.

Our youngest sister, Jennifer Adair Hay (Howard University, Class of 2004) and the Hay Family Legacy Foundation established scholarship through the Howard University Medical Alumni Association (HUMAA) in loving memory of the late Dr. Luther B. Adair, Sr., Howard University, Class of 1967 and 1971.

I trained in radiology at Long Island College Hospital in  Brooklyn and completed a fellowship in abdominal radiology at Thomas  Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Today I practice as a teleradiologist and serve as the principal owner of Nashville Radiology Partners West, a private radiology group based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where my wife Rachael and I are raising our sons.

Two decades have passed since I walked the stage at Meharry.  Returning this year, I see the College through the eyes of an alumnus, a practice owner, a father, and the steward of a family foundation. What I  see is an institution still doing what it has always done: training physicians who will go where they are most needed.

PLATE III — 2005 Meharry Medical College Yearbook — Dr. Luther B. Adair II  pictured with the Junior Medical Class and the Radiology and Anatomical  Sciences Student Organization.