BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Family and friends will host the Daniels Family Picnic and Fundraiser to honor the legacy of a prominent Buffalo doctor and his two daughters who were killed in a house fire.
Dr. Jonathan Daniels and his daughters, 27-year-old Jordan and 23-year-old Jensen, died in a house fire on Huntington Avenue in North Buffalo on July 4, 2022.
Students who Dr. Daniels mentored at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and other organizations are coming together to keep his legacy alive.
“For Dr. Daniels, he was given the name 'Superboy,'” said Daniel Olutalabi, a resident physician at the Jacobs School of Medicine. “Which was amply given because he was a hero to everybody, especially in the Buffalo community.”
The picnic and fundraiser will be held on July 1 and proceeds will go to the “Daniels Family Scholarships.” The goal is to raise at least $5,000. It will take place at the JFK Pavilion located at 114 Hickory Street. There will be food by Taste of Haiti, community speakers, and a bubbles-style "balloon release" ceremony.
“This fundraiser would help and raise money for individuals who are trying to get into medicine, specifically students of color,” Olutalabi says. “As it’s our point to help these individuals with scholarships.”
Some say Dr. Daniels’ passing left a hole in the Buffalo community, but that isn’t stopping students and others from picking up the pieces.
“I think it’s also an honor to be able to see what he was able to do in the short time I’ve been in medical school,” says Sydney Johnson, a rising medical student at Jacobs School of Medicine. “So it has been very inspirational in what I want to see for the school and in greater Buffalo.”
Dr. Daniels' powerful impact even increased the diversity of students in the 2025 class to 24 percent at the Jacobs School of Medicine.
“Not only wanting to increase our diversity, but he also wanted to increase that diversity among the people in Buffalo,” says Dr. Dori Marshall, a dean at Jacobs School of Medicine. “So the people that we train here are more likely to stay in the WNY community.”
