Donald Cooper

February 15, 2017

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Donald L. Cooper, 88, was born in Columbus, KS, on August 11, 1928, to Calvin and Jesse Cooper. He attended Pittsburg State University, where he met Dona Maddux, who would become his wife on June 4, 1950. Don attended Kansas University’s medical school, graduating 4th in his class in 1953. This was followed by a two-year stint (1954-1956) in the U.S. Air Force where he served as a Captain. After leaving the Air Force, he became a team physician and assistant director of the student health center at Kansas State University. In 1960, he came to OSU as director of the OSU Hospital and team physician. Don served as President of the American College Health Association as well as on several NCAA committees. Some of the awards he received over the years are induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (1998), Distinguished American Award from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Foundation, College Football Hall of Fame, and Doctor of the Year for the Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association (1999). In addition, he served as one of two U.S. team physicians for the World Games for the Deaf in Los Angeles and Mexico City. Don also received the National Athletic Trainers Association’s President’s Challenged Sports Medicine Award and served on the President’s Council for Physical Fitness during both the Reagan and Bush administrations. He was also the team physician for the 1968 Olympic team. Don, along with his wife Dona, were very active in a number of church activities, and he served as a volunteer physician for the Stillwater Community Health Center. The Coopers are the parents of four children: Chip (Peggy), Cathy Fowler (Roge), Cheri Conway (Kevin), and Tad (Sarah). They have eight grandchildren and 15 grandchildren. Don is preceded in death by his parents and two brothers and one sister: Calvin, Jr., Catherine Stover, and Richard.