About Us
Mecklenburg Radiology Associates (MRA) is the oldest radiology group in North Carolina. We provide the highest quality diagnostic imaging services to the greater Charlotte region.
Our History
James Williamson Squires was born in Matthews NC on November 2, 1888. His family moved to Charlotte when he was 5 years old and he graduated high school there in 1906. He subsequently enrolled in the North Carolina Medical College and graduated in 1911. Afterward, he went for further study at the New York Post Graduate Hospital and Rockefeller Institute in 1912. That year he married Eunice V. Jeffries of Charlotte and eventually had two sons. He did additional training in Roentgenology at Johns Hopkins in 1913 and became the head of Roentgenology at the Charlotte Sanatorium. He served as the head of Roentgenology until approximately June of 1917 when he entered the US Army. His initial training was at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia and subsequently at Cornell University for advanced training in Roentgenology. He was assigned to the 39th mobile hospital unit in August 1917. This unit was known as the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit (he is seated at the far left front in the picture) as it was mostly composed of and led by physicians from Yale University. Although this was the 39th mobile hospital unit it was the first mobile hospital in the US Army. He was deployed to France on September 17, 1917, and served with distinction as the head of Roentgenology until succumbing to lobar pneumonia on December 16, 1918, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. He is buried in the St. Mihel graveyard in France. He was remembered by his colleague in Roentgenology Dr. Robert Lafferty in this eulogy.
Robert (Bob) Hervey Lafferty was born in Davidson, NC on August 28, 1878. He received AB and MA degrees in Chemistry from Davidson College and taught for several years before pursuing additional training from the North Carolina Medical College and the University of Chicago. He began work in Urology and Radiology in 1915 at the Charlotte Sanatorium and restricted his work to Radiology in 1917 succeeding his colleague Dr. Squires upon his departure. During WW1 Dr. Lafferty did all of the radiology work for Camp Greene in Charlotte. He was joined in practice by Dr. Clyde Philips in 1918 and by Dr. O.D. Baxter in 1937. Dr. Lafferty had a distinguished career during which he served as the first Vice President of the RSNA. He married Edith K. Fry of Charlotte on January 17, 1914, and had two sons; Dr. R.H. Lafferty Jr and Dr. John Odgen Lafferty. John Lafferty trained in Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania and served during WW2 in the 120th Evacuation Hospital in General Patton’s third army where he helped to liberate Buchenwald Concentration Camp. On June 1, 1945, he wrote a letter home to his family about his experience. Bob Lafferty died from complications of Leukemia in 1950. His son John Lafferty continued in his practice and Mecklenburg Radiology Associates was formally incorporated in 1971.
