Edwin Chappabitty, Jr.

Edwin Chappabitty, Jr., a citizen of the Comanche Nation, was born on 4 January 1945 at the Lawton Indian Hospital, Lawton, Oklahoma. A 1963 graduate of Lawton High School, he was an athlete interested in math and science. Declining a Harvard College scholarship, he attended Cameron Junior College 1964–1965 and was a member of the Keathley Rifles and the Army ROTC Battalion staff. He is a 1967 graduate of Oklahoma State University (OSU) with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology. An Army ROTC Distinguished Military graduate, he accepted a Regular Army commission as a Field Artillery 2nd Lieutenant.

Chappabitty entered active duty with the 101st Airborne Division in 1967, graduated from Airborne School, and completed FA Officer Basic in 1968. In May 1969 he arrived in Vietnam assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery, 25th Infantry Division. He distinguished himself in 1969 by heroic actions on 11 October and 23 November, and on 21 February 1970. He was awarded two Bronze Stars and an Army Commendation Medal, each with “V” for Valor.

In 1972 he left the Army, attended Dartmouth College, and graduated in 1980 from Colorado School of Medicine. In 1983 he was sworn into the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service and assigned to the hospital where he was born—Lawton Indian Hospital. Dr. Chappabitty was a family practice physician at the Anadarko Indian Health Clinic in Lawton for 25 years, retiring in 2008. He went on to pursue a career as the first Medical Director of the Comanche Nation in Lawton.

In 2002 he was honored as an OSU Alumni Association Distinguished Alumnus and in 2015 was inducted into the OSU College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. In 2011, he established the Edwin Chappabitty, Jr, MD. Scholarship in Zoology to encourage and assist American Indian college students studying the sciences. He passed on 15 June 2021 and rests in Post Oak Cemetery, Indiahoma, Comanche County, Oklahoma.