Thomas Cummiskey '58: Helping medical students achieve a UB education

After graduation and an internship at Buffalo General Hospital, Thomas Cummiskey ’58 served in the U.S. Army medical corps for two years.  He completed his residency and a research fellowship at Buffalo General.  Though his research went well, Cummiskey says that he “found out I was not a researcher at heart.  It didn’t excite me. I had a broader interest in general internal medicine.”

His subsequent venture into private practice led him to another discovery: “I didn’t like charging people for what I was doing.”  He moved to the VA Hospital, where he could provide medical services to his patients free of charge.

In 1970, he joined UB’s medical school as associate dean for student and academic affairs.  During his tenure, he helped with curriculum revisions and implementation. The change “allowed students to explore pathways and choose earlier what field they wanted to go into when they got to their clinical training, which was a step forward.”  Serving as associate dean also impressed upon Cummiskey just how few scholarship and loan resources existed for medical students.

After five years, Cummiskey returned to practicing medicine. Diagnostic radiology was becoming “very exciting” with the advent of CAT scans, ultrasound, and MRI. It opened the way for radiologists to perform new procedures such as percitanous biopsies, abscess drainage, and inserting vascular stents, thus avoiding more open procedures that could involve general anesthesia. His interest piqued, Cummiskey took himself back to school. He did a residency at Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital in diagnostic radiology and liked what he experienced. After his residency, he came back to Buffalo and to the VA Hospital.  “I became involved in a broader spectrum of treatment because there we tended to see very ill patients with multiple problems.  And I liked that care was available to all of them.”

Today, Cummiskey is happily retired but still aware of the costs medical students face. When they graduate, he notes, “Students can owe $100,000 or more. I’m sure those particularly in need would be thankful for the help.” Through a planned gift, he has created a scholarship and emergency loan fund for students in UB’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  “I’m fortunate in that my parents put me through medical school,” he says.  “I’m doing this in their honor.”