From his humble roots as a farm boy living and working on his parent’s small ranch midway between Garden Grove and Anaheim, Dr. Les Holve advanced to become a doctor who transformed children’s lives as a pediatrician and cleft palate specialist.
His childhood was complicated by significant allergies, infantile eczema and asthma, worsened when he contracted whooping cough at age 3. Maybe because of his childhood ailments, Holve became a pediatrician, eventually serving as chief of pediatrics at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and president of the Los Angeles Pediatric Society.
He also founded a charity program for underserved inner city children with the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, and helped start the first “Comprehensive Cleft Palate Team” in Southern California at St. John’s. As medical director of the Center, he developed a coast-to-coast resource for doctors and parents of cleft children and other children with craniofacial defects. He now serves as emeritus medical director of the facility.
Following graduation from Anaheim High in 1944, Holve entered Occidental College as part of the Navy V-12 program, eventually earning his medical degree from USC.September 1952, Dr. Holve was called to active duty in the Korean Conflict. After two years in the Service, Holve returned to the newly opened UCLA Pediatric Training Program and soon started a private practice.
By 1964, he joined with a group of specialists at John’s Hospital and Health Center, to start the first “Comprehensive Cleft Palate Team” in the Southern California area. During the next 20 years, he became more deeply involved with National American Cleft Palate Association. As the Association’s president, he helped the group expand to become a significant coast-to-coast resource for doctors, parents of cleft children and other children with craniofacial defects.
He was also an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at UCLA and taught clinical pediatrics at UCLA on a volunteer basis until he and his wife moved to Oakmont in Santa Rosa, to be near their oldest son and his family. Married 64 years with three children and six grandchildren, the couple is enjoying their golden years at their home in the woods.
Dr. Holves lifetime of dedication to his country and community was celebrated at the Class of ’44 Reunion on June 6, 1944, when he was inducted into the Anaheim High School Hall of Fame.
