Physician's Parting Gift is $2M Endowment to Beaumont

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI – Bloomfield Hills physician Dr. Gerald C. Timmis plans to give Beaumont Hospital – Royal Oak $2 million, the largest gift a doctor has ever given the hospital, to honor his late wife.

The gift will create the Dorothy Susan Timmis Endowed Chair of Cardiology. Dorothy Timmis died in 2004.

“Dorothy was the love of my life,” Timmis told Hometownlife.com. “We almost made it 50 years together and we raised six sons. I’m a lucky guy and I was particularly lucky to have a fabulous woman at my side ... she was the greatest person I ever knew.”

The endowment is parting gift by Timmis, 85, who will retire at the end of the month. A founding member of the hospital’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, he joined the Beaumont Hospital – Royal Oak medical staff in 1964.

Dr. Simon Dixon, chair of cardiovascular medicine at Beaumont’s Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak and Troy hospitals, will be the first Dorothy Susan Timmis Endowed Chair of Cardiology.

“Not only has Dr. Timmis done a great deal for our patients and the department, he has significantly helped to advance the field of heart care,” Dixon said.

The money will be used for patient care, research and education.

“Dr. Timmis truly has set a new standard of generosity with this gift,” Margaret Cooney Casey, president of Beaumont Foundation, said. “We deeply appreciate his leadership and his desire to support Beaumont in such a transformative and meaningful way.”

» For more about the Timmis love story, go to Hometownlife.com.