Dr. Bhagwandas Dwarikaparsad Gokul

Services for Dr. Das Gokul, M.D., 84, retired physician, will be held at 1:00 P.M., Sunday, July 18, 2021, at Lacy Funeral Home with Rev. Mike Hannah and Dr. Jeffrey Moore officiating. There will be a second service at 10:00 A.M., Monday, July 19, 2021, at Hughes Family Tribute Center in Dallas, Texas. 

Dr. Das Gokul was born in Hattingspruit, KwaZulu-Natal, a coal mining town in the highlands of South Africa, on June 19, 1937. He was the 3rd of 6 children born to his family.

As a young man, Das worked as an elementary grade school teacher before leaving home to study medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. He worked as a train station attendant in England during the summers to pay for college, graduating in 1966. He then went on to complete his internship and residency in internal medicine at Hurley Medical Center, in affiliation with the University of Michigan. He completed additional training at the Medical College of Ohio followed by training in Clinical Cardiology and Rheumatology at Victoria General Hospital and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He then served as a Senior Physician at the Nova Scotia Hospital before traveling to a small town in Texas to serve as a Senior Physician at the hospital in Stephenville.

In 1978, Dr. Gokul along with seven physicians built the clinic that eventually became Stephenville Medical and Surgical Clinic. The new building opened in 1979. Dr. Gokul continued to serve his community until 2018 after 41 years of service. He also worked in the Tarleton University Student Center from 1992-2017 serving and treating college students.

In his personal life, Dr. Gokul was an active devotee and lifetime board member of the North Texas Hindu Mandir. He sponsored and traveled with several Pandits on missions to South Africa and India. He enjoyed travel and photography in his free time. His extensive travel included much of Europe, Canada, Philippines, South Africa, India, and the United States.

Dr. Gokul is survived by his wife, Lou, who he met in Stephenville while she was working as a Critical Care Nurse at the local hospital. They were married in Stephenville in 1987. 

He is also survived by his three children. His eldest, Dr. Adhikar Gokul was born in Halifax, Canada, and a graduate of Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, South Africa. He currently lives and works as a family medicine physician in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife, Neema. 

Nisha Gokul is Dr. Gokul’s elder daughter and a prior Baylor College of Medicine Graduate student in Molecular & Cellular Biology. She is serving at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a researcher in Gynecological Oncology & Reproductive Medicine in Houston, Texas. 

His younger daughter, Dr. Sheila Gokul, is a graduate from UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. She is currently living and working as a resident physician at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband, Matt.

"In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the North Texas Hindu Mandir at 10309 Baronne Cir, Dallas, TX 75218 or H.O.P.E., Inc., 1617 E. Washington, Stephenville, TX 76401 in honor of Dr. Das Gokul.