Chivalry is a wonderful thing, but it can sometimes exact a painful price. Philanthropists George and Marla Bergmann, whose $2 million commitment recently established an endowed chair for Department of Orthopaedics Chairman Frank Eismont, M.D., can vouch for that.

Grinning, George Bergmann fondly recounts a tale that elicits playful grimaces from his wife. He goes back six years, to a day when the Bergmanns were in a Texas airport after disembarking from a flight that originated in Los Angeles.

“We were walking through Houston changing planes, and I was carrying Marla’s two carry-on bags,” the developer remembers. “She had hurt her foot coming out of Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills—what better way to sustain an injury?”

Laughing, Marla Bergmann shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

The entire family would soon be in discomfort that day in Houston. As soon as George Bergmann hoisted his wife’s bags to place them in an aircraft overhead bin, pain flared from his neck. Following an agonizing flight home to South Florida, George Bergmann wasted little time seeking out Eismont for treatment.

Bergmann was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, which causes a narrowing of the spinal canal. In concert with another physician outside the Miller School, Eismont managed to rehabilitate Bergmann without surgery.

“He’s kept my husband off the operating table,” says a grateful Marla Bergmann, B.B.A. ’82. “And through years of treating my husband, we’ve become very, very close friends.” The Bergmanns began making philanthropic contributions to the Miami Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education, the fundraising arm of the Department of Orthopaedics.

“When we wanted to find a way to really show our love, support, and respect for Frank Eismont, we felt that the most appropriate way to do that was to endow a chair in his honor,” Marla Bergmann says. The ceremony for Eismont’s endowed chair took place in January at the Biltmore hotel.

“George Bergmann,” Eismont says, “has gone from patient, to friend, to practically family.” With the Miller School for 25 years, Eismont adds that the Bergmanns’ endowment in his honor will be put to good use.

“It will help us pursue education, research, and of course basic care,” Eismont says. “Research is always underfunded, and education is severely underfunded. This will kind of give us an edge in those areas.”

Prior to hurting his neck, George Bergmann had another encounter with the Department of Orthopaedics, when he was successfully treated for a back injury. Along with their ties to orthopaedics, the Bergmanns are engaged in other Miller School philanthropic activities.

Marla Bergmann, who is a certified public accountant and has been instrumental in fundraising for other medical and education institutions in South Florida, is now assisting University of Miami Hospital in that area.

She is chairing the University of Miami Hospital Leadership Council, a volunteer group charged with raising capital and annual gifts for the Society of Health Champions, the hospital’s umbrella fundraising organization.

“I’m a ’Cane—I graduated UM!” she says. “So there will always be a love of UM and giving back to the community, something my husband and I strongly believe in.”