BUFFALO, N.Y. – A new $1 million gift from philanthropist Janet H. Sung, MD, to the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo is honoring the memory of her late husband, John J. Sung, and continuing the couple’s long commitment to supporting future physicians.

The donation, made this year following John Sung’s death in December 2025, 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,” Janet Sung says. “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 a $1 million gift. The scholarship is awarded to one medical student in each incoming class. In 2015, after selling their medical imaging business and retiring to Florida, the couple expanded the fund with another $1 million donation.

“We just wanted the scholarship to be bigger and to help more students,” Janet Sung says.

Specializing in women’s imaging

The Sungs founded Windsong Radiology Park in Western New York, one of the largest freestanding diagnostic imaging centers in the United States. Janet Sung is a nationally recognized radiologist specializing in women’s imaging who has pioneered numerous diagnostic procedures, while John Sung was widely regarded as a driving force behind the operational and financial success of Windsong Radiology.

Through their continued philanthropy, the Sungs’ scholarship support has helped generations of medical students pursue their education at the Jacobs School.

“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,” says Allison Brashear, MD, UB’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School. “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.”

Janet Sung says the couple originally decided to fund medical school scholarships because of the hardships they faced as students in their native South Korea.

“John grew up in the countryside until he went to high school in Seoul for a better education, which would lead to a chance to go to university and have a better life,” she says. “He went through tough times to meet basic necessities and pay tuition throughout his school days.

“Scholarship wasn’t easy during those days in Korea although he was smart and lucky enough to receive it many times. It was always in his mind that he would set up scholarships for less fortunate hard-working students.”

Hardships inspired altruism

Janet Sung says her father, a junior lieutenant, was the first Korean soldier killed in the Korean War on June 26, 1950. She was 3 years old at the time and her mother became a widow in her mid-20s.

“I was raised by a mother who never remarried,” she says. “She was the one who forced me to go to medical school. In Korea, the ladies never worked; it was always being a housewife. But at that moment, she determined that I wouldn’t have to go through what she did. So, in her mind, I had to be a professional.”

She earned her medical degree from Korea University College of Medicine in 1971, and she and her husband arrived in New Jersey a year later with $200, the maximum amount South Korea allowed its emigrants at the time.

While Janet Sung completed her residency training, John Sung earned his MBA from Seton Hall University and completed his CPA training.

In 1977, they moved to Buffalo where she held positions in radiology with area hospitals. John Sung worked first for the accounting firm Peat Marwick Mitchell then taught at Daemen College and had his own office before working full-time with Janet Sung.

“My first job was at Sisters of Charity Hospital and then I moved to St. Joseph,” she says.

“I realized in the hospital setting, it’s not that easy to have much direct contact with the patient. Radiology was usually just taking a picture and then sitting and waiting anxiously in the waiting room.”

‘Patient-centered radiological practice’

Janet Sung was certain that a radiologist’s communication with the patient and the primary care provider was an important part of health care and wanted to pursue a “patient-centered radiological practice.”

“When I got home, we’d talk about our day, and John was the one who listened to my complaints.

He saw the potential and was gutsy and brave so he kept saying ‘you can do this, let’s do it,’” Janet says.

The Harlem Radiology Center had a modest beginning in 1987 when the Sungs, after pooling their assets and taking out a loan, greeted 55 patients on their first day of operation at a renovated Pizza Hut in Cheektowaga.

Janet was the only doctor and had only one X-ray, one mammogram and one ultrasound machine.

Within five years, they outgrew the site and relocated to Williamsville, changing the practice’s name to Windsong Radiology.

John Sung acted as CEO and his strategic leadership, financial acumen and commitment to community investment helped transform a small family practice into a nationally recognized diagnostic imaging institution with six locations and more than 200 employees.

“Education for the less fortunate kids was always on John’s mind. That was the main reason we did scholarships,” she says, noting that the Jacobs School was an obvious choice as a beneficiary because “we achieved the American dream at Buffalo through our medical practice.”

They began donating to UB after their daughter, Janice, was accepted into the Jacobs School. Janice Sung, MD ’03, followed in her mother’s footsteps and is currently a professor of radiology at Columbia University. The couple’s son, Brian, earned a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University School of Law, and works  in finance in Massachusetts.