Medical
Team Committed to Healthcare
Drs. Sang Whay Kooh and
Rak Hay Kim were born and raised in Korea. They met as medical students,
Yon-Se University, Seoul, marrying shortly after obtaining their M.D. degrees.
After post-graduate training in the United States, 1956, they, with three
small children, came to Toronto, 1962, and completed their medical specialties,
pediatrics for Dr. Kooh, and internal medicine for Dr. Kim. After obtaining
his Ph.D., Physiology, University of Toronto, Dr. Kooh has continued to
work as a Research Scientist and Pediatrician, Hospital for Sick Children,
since 1962. He is an internationally recognized expert in children’s bone
disease, specializing in rickets and Vitamin D deficiency. In the Korean-Canadian
community he is better known for his leadership role in many community
organizations. At one time or another, he has served as President or Chairman
of Korean-Canadian Cultural Association of Metropolitan Toronto; Toronto-Korean
Educational Society; Korean YMCA; Korean Scholarship Foundation; Korean
Heritage Award Society; Korean United Way Committee; and Korean Mental
Health Centre. He was a member of the Race-Relations Committee and Heritage
Language Advisory Committee, Toronto Board of Education and has been a
Director of Korea Exchange Bank of Canada since its inception. He also
edited Koreans in Ontario, 1986. For outstanding Service to Canada’s Korean
Community, Dr. Kooh received a commendation from the President of the Republic
of Korea, 1991. Dr. Kooh also received, 1973, a citation for Community
Service from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, ROK. Dr. Kim has been in
private practice in internal medicine in Toronto since the late 1960s.
She will be remembered by many Koreans as the first Korean-speaking doctor
looking after patients who could not speak English. Her practice over the
past 10 years has been exclusively endocrinology, treating diseases such
as diabetes and thyroid conditions. This 1998 photograph of Dr. Kooh, right,
and Dr.Kim, left, includes three of their six grandchildren. [Photo, courtesy
Dr. Sang Whay Kooh]