Retired radiologist donates $1M to school of medicine in honor of late husband
A philanthropist and retired radiologist recently donated $1 million to a local school of medicine in honor of her late husband.
Janet H. Sung, MD, gave the gift to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo. She made the donation earlier this year following the death of her partner, John J. Sung, MBA, in December.
This brings the family’s total giving to the Jacobs School to $3 million, in support of the John J. and Janet H. Sung Scholarship.
“Our family just wants to honor John’s lifelong dream of helping students gain an education,” Dr. Sung said in a school news announcement published June 22. “Hopefully, they will benefit from this, will be good citizens and return the gift to society.”
The Sungs first established the endowed scholarship in 1999 with an initial $1 million gift. It’s awarded to one medical student in each incoming class, according to the news update. After selling their business, Windsong Radiology, in 2015 and retiring to Florida, the couple donated another $1 million to expand the fund.
“We just wanted the scholarship to be bigger and to help more students,” Sung said.
Dr. Sung first immigrated to the U.S. in 1972 with her husband and the $200 their native South Korea allowed its departing citizens at the time. They opened the Harlem Radiology Center 15 years later in a renovated Pizza Hut with pink doors in Cheektowaga, New York, according to a 2019 interview with the public radio station. She was the only doctor there at the time, working with only one X-ray, one mammogram and one ultrasound machine. By 2002, the business had grown to one of the largest freestanding imaging centers in the U.S., with six locations across Western New York.
Dr. Sung retired as a nationally recognized radiologist specializing in women’s imaging, having pioneered “numerous” diagnostic procedures, according to the university. Her husband, who served as CEO, was widely regarded as a “driving force” behind the operational and financial success of Windsong Radiology. The practice later partnered with US Radiology Specialists (now Lumexa Imaging) in 2020.
“John and Janet Sung built their lives, careers and the American dream here in Buffalo, and they have given back to this community with exceptional generosity,” Allison Brashear, MD, MBA, UB’s VP for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School, said in the news item. “This gift is a beautiful tribute to John’s vision and reflects the family’s unwavering belief in expanding opportunity for our students. Their impact on the Jacobs School is immeasurable.”
The Sungs chose UB as their benefactor after achieving their successes in the Buffalo area. Their daughter, Janice, also attended the Jacobs School, following her mother’s path to become a professor of radiology at Columbia University.
“Education for the less fortunate kids was always on John’s mind. That was the main reason we did scholarships,” Dr. Sung said.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.