Keith and Laurie Tennant

A former Kansas University professor and his wife have made a commitment to donate $1 million to the KU Medical Center.

Keith Tennant, of Vero Beach, Fla., said he and his wife, Laurie Tennant, decided to offer the gift as a way of giving thanks for life-saving care Keith Tennant received at the medical center when he was 67.

“I come from a family of heart disease,” Keith Tennant said. “No male in my family has lived past 52.”

Now 72, Keith Tennant said he underwent his last heart bypass at the medical center during his 10-year tenure at Kansas University.

“They were top notch,” he said. “They did everything right. They were so accommodating. I was so impressed.”

The seven-figure donation, which will come from the Tennants’ estate after their deaths, will go toward research at the medical center’s Cardiovascular Research Institute in Kansas City, Kan.

Keith Tennant said not only was the donation a way of giving thanks, but it’s also a way of paying his good fortune forward to those who may benefit from the institute’s research.

“I wanted others with heart disease to be able to have whatever the future holds in research and maybe help someone else along the way,” he said. “I feel totally good. It (the donation) makes you feel worthwhile. It’s working for other people and making their lives good.”

Both Tennants were faculty members at the university’s department of health, sport and exercise science. Keith Tennant was a professor from 2002 and department chair from 2002 to 2005 until he retired in 2012. Laurie Tennant taught in the department from 2002 to 2011.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story has been edited to note that the gift will come from the couple’s estate.