LCDR David Bates who serves as the Pharmacy Director at the Tsaile Indian Health Center in Tsaile, Arizona.
David is a 1981 graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University. He is married to Louise and they are proud parents of five sons and two daughters. Two of their sons live here in Bartlesville.
After graduating from OKWU, David pastored Wesleyan churches in Kansas from 1980 to 1988. He then went on to be accepted into Pharmacy School in 1989 and graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1993. He was commissioned in the U.S. Public Health Service in 1993 and began his tour of duty among the Navajo People as a pharmacist in Fort Defiance, AZ. He is now the Chief Pharmacist for the Tsaile Health Center of the Navajo Nation.
A highlight of David’s career was his deployment to perform the responsibilities of Chief Pharmacist for all operations in New York City during the World Trade Center Disaster. He was responsible for all pharmaceutical control and purchasing requirements for the DMAT operations in the city. He also coordinated all the pharmaceutical issues related to patient care and the drug formulary. Because of his work in New York City, David was presented the Public Health Service Achievement Medal.
“I have a couple of memories to share. It was either the fall of 1980 or the spring of 1981 that a few of us students would gather in the upper room of the cafeteria and meet in some great intercessory prayer during the lunch hour. These were precious moments. And, I am still impressed with the late Rev. Hauser who, at First Wesleyan, met me once and remembered my name thenceforth. He was a wonderful man of God.”