August 18, 1994

Southwest Hospital in Little Rock (Pulaski County) dedicated its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit to the memory of James Ronald Rodgers Sr., its former vice chairman of the board. Rodgers was the first African American to be appointed manager of a major American commercial airport, the first black head of a major independent city agency in Little Rock (Pulaski County), and the state’s first black commercial loan officer. Rodgers, who died in December 1993, was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame on October 27, 1994.