By Benji Bergstrand

Earlier this year Bluffton Family YMCA, 215 Snider Rd., named their gymnasium in honor of the late Dr. Terry Chappell who worked with others to help found Bluffton’s recreation center (formerly Bluffton Family Recreation) and who also spent decades promoting exercise and healthy living through his Bluffton medical practice. 

Dr. Chappell has a deep connection to basketball in general and the Bluffton YMCA gymnasium in particular. 

Chappell’s father Louis grew up in a poor family and when the boys started getting in trouble in their community, someone decided to step in and lend a hand. “An anonymous person bought [Louis] a membership to the YMCA,” explains Chappell’s daughter Wendy Chappell-Dick. “He started playing basketball and basketball got him a scholarship, which got him to college. From there he became a lawyer and then a judge.”

The family that Terry grew up in didn’t have to deal with the same struggles his father had known. “It was like the American dream, but it started with basketball and the YMCA,” Chappell-Dick said. “Basketball was important to [Louis] and it became important to my dad for deep reasons beyond just the sport itself.”

When Chappell started his medical practice in Bluffton he brought with him the lessons learned about the benefits of athletics and exercise. “Dad always promoted exercise as medicine for his patients,” Chappell-Dick said. “He always focused on that element of health as being extremely effective for prevention and treatment of ailments.”

Dr. Chappell sometimes combined his interests in athletics and health in interesting ways. He was a runner in college and continued to run for exercise later in life–even on the golf course. According to Wendy, he still holds the record for the fastest round of golf at the Bluffton Golf Club as he ran from shot to shot. “Part of the reason for that was because my mom hated it when he played golf,” Chappell-Dick observed with a laugh. 

Dr. Chappell also played a regular early morning game of pick-up basketball for many years. As the players aged, injuries naturally became more common. Chappell reportedly offered players from the game free joint therapy that he would administer at his office after the game, but before patients began showing up for the day. Not every teammate can offer that level of care.

As Chappell himself began to age and he could no longer play competitive basketball, he returned to his roots, shooting baskets in the gymnasium at BFR/Bluffton Family YMCA, the organization he helped to found, as part of his daily exercise. He would shoot until he had made 100 shots even as he struggled with health issues later in life. 

It was his faithfulness at this simple exercise that caught the attention of Bluffton Y instructor Jamie Nygaard. “I’d stopped and talked to him one day about his involvement in starting BFR and shared with him how thankful I was for that–BFR has meant so much to me since I started going there,” Nygaard said. 

After Dr. Chappell passed away,  Jamie and her husband Christian talked about a way to honor him and hit upon the idea of naming the gymnasium for him. Bluffton Y Director Amy Byers loved the idea and after consulting with Chappell’s children, the decision was made to go ahead. “It’s not the type of attention he ever sought,” Wendy said. “But I’m sure he would’ve been honored.”

Now Dr. Chappell’s name sits above the door to the gymnasium where he made so many baskets and inspired many people with his example of dedication to health and fitness.