Baptist Health Corbin President Larry Gray has left the hospital to assume a new role as president of the Baptist Health Louisville Hospital.
Gray began his career as a clinical chaplain at Central Baptist Hospital (now known as Baptist Health Lexington), becoming director of pastoral care in 1986. In 1993, he took on executive duties at the Lexington hospital, becoming vice president for system support and administrative services in 1997.
In 2011, Gray became the President of the Corbin hospital.
Gray said he was contacted by the CEO a few weeks ago and was asked if he would be willing to move to Louisville. He agreed and accepted the position.
“This system has meant a lot to me for 35 years,” said Gray. “When asked to take this on, it was difficult to leave the people I had grown so close to in Corbin.”
Gray said that in Louisville, he hopes to experience the same welcoming embrace he and his wife received when they came to Corbin.
He said they were going to miss going to a restaurant and knowing that they had some relationship with two thirds of the people sitting at the tables. He is going to miss seeing the mayor and member of the Chamber of Commerce around town as well as members of the their First Baptist Church family.
Gray said that he and his wife were both raised in small towns, so Corbin is comfortable. He described Corbin as a, “wonderful, gracious, caring community.”
Gray says that he is most proud of the interventional cardiology program, the expansion of the neo-natal unit, the oncology program and the wonderful leaders at the Corbin hospital.
Gray said that by working in Corbin, “I learned that it’s okay that I don’t have all the answers.”
He said that he learned to trust the leaders around him who had the knowledge he didn’t. He hopes to be able to take that knowledge with him to Louisville.
Gray said that a new president for the hospital has not been decided but he hopes that the next president at Baptist Health Corbin will, “keep dreaming and have a curious mind,” so that the hospital can continue to grow.
The interim president of the Corbin hospital will be Anthony Powers. Powers was interim president in the time before Gray took over.
“I know of no one who understands the Corbin market and the community better than Anthony Powers,” said Gray. “He will lead a gifted and competent leadership group as they move into a new future. The leadership team is asking innovative questions about what is possible and they are executing on strategies. There are exciting projects on the runway that will transform service to this community.”
Gray began working in Louisville on Monday, June 18.
