Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ISABEL ROSANOFF PLESSET
The
daughter of a distinguished authority on psychiatry, Isabel Rosanoff
Plesset has expanded the Alhambra Neuropsychiatric
Hospital, established by her father, Dr. Aaron J. Rosanoff
in 1924, into a recognized organization.
Fully approved by the American Psychiatric Association, the thirty-five
bed facility, one of the thirty-nine private psychiatric hospitals in the
United States and Canada so approved, has thirty-six psychiatrists on its
staff, together with sixteen other specialists, as well as social workers and
psychologists.
Mrs.
Plesset was born on Long Island, New York, on August
22, 1912. Her father was a native of
Russia who was in practice in Los Angeles, founded the hospital for his own
patients, and in 1939 was appointed to Governor Olson’s cabinet as the State
Mental Health Director in Sacramento. He
also wrote a textbook on psychiatry, still much in use, and taught psychiatry
at the University of Southern California and the College of Medical
Evangelists. Her mother is Isabel (Ross)
Rosanoff, born in Boston, Massachusetts. A graduate of Alhambra High School, Mrs. Plesset in 1933 graduated from the University of California
at Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.
When
her father assumed the post in Sacramento, Mrs. Plesset
took over the hospital and expanded it, continuing as administrator until 1955
at which time she employed administrators with general hospital
experience. Fully modernized in 1961,
that same year the hospital, at 4619 North Rosemead Boulevard, formerly known
as Alhambra Sanatorium, received its present name, and was granted full approval
by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals.
Mrs.
Plesset is on the board of the Hathaway Home for
Children, and of the Pasadena Area Mental Health Association, as well as
president of the board of directors of the Alhambra Neuropsychiatric Hospital,
and a past member, for nine years, of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on
Mental Health. She is a former member of
the Rosemead Women’s Club.
In
Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 28, 1934, the former Isabel Rosanoff
was married to Dr. Milton Plesset, a physicist, who
was then on a training fellowship in Copenhagen. Presently, and for most of the time since
1940, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Plesset is also a consultant for the Rand Corporation. He is a past chairman of the Rosemead School
Board. Dr. and Mrs. Plesset
have four children, all of whom attended Rosemead schools: Michael R., who earned his Master of Arts
degree at Los Angeles State College; Mrs. Vincent (Jean Ann) Taylor of Santa
Monica who graduated from Pasadena High School and Pomona College; Marjorie L.
and Judith E., both attending the University of California at Los Angeles.
Mrs.
Plesset’s brother, Dr. William R. Rosanoff,
killed in an auto accident in 1949, had set up his practice in Alhambra in
1946, was active on the hospital staff, and also taught at the College of
Medical Evangelists. His wife is a nurse
in the Alhambra City Schools.
In
addition to having published many articles on psychiatry, Mrs. Plesset is a pianist and makes a hobby of music.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 637-638, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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