About

R. J. Keiffer, architect.

History:
Dr. Donald E. Ross lived here in 1940. He encountered the wrath of organized medicine when he and the late Dr. H. Clifford Loos pioneered the prepaid health care field. Dr. Ross and Dr. Loos began their Ross-Loos Medical Group in 1929. Five years later, they were expelled by the Los Angeles County Medical Association because many doctors felt they were violating professional ethics.

They were ordered reinstated, however, when the Judicial Council of the American Medical Association investigated and found no proof of the charges. Dr. Ross, who was born in Clinton, Ontario, attended the University of Toronto Medical School and practiced in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, where he contracted to provide health care for Canadian Pacific Railroad employees under the company’s medical plan.

When he moved to Southern California in 1925, Dr. Ross was in the process of buying the practice of Dr. Loos when the two decided to set up their own prepaid health plan. Their first subscribers were 400 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees who paid $1.50 each a month.

In 1964, when the Ross-Loos organization had grown to 140,000 subscribers and dependents, Dr. Ross said he was still convinced that low-cost, high-quality care was possible for everybody — but he doubted the public would ever get it. He predicted, rather, that the nation eventually would have socialized medicine and said it would cost much more than the private medical plans for which he helped set the pattern. And although he was at odds with much of organized medicine over the latter concept, he shared its opposition to government intervention. (Source: Obituary: The Washington Post, 1981).

Listed at $1,495,000 in 1998. Listed at $1,349,000 in 1999. (Source: Real estate brochure)

1930 census:
4531 Dundee Drive (Value: $???): 1) Elizabeth Wagner, caretaker; 26 year old white married female; married at age 20; born in Germany; parents born in Germany; speaks German; to US in 1928, a resident alien; a servant in a private family.

1940 Census:
4531 Dundee (Value $15,000): 1) Donald E. Ross, head of household; white married male 47 years of age; born in Canada; a medical doctor in group practice ; 2) Hazel P. Ross, wife; white married female 48 years of age; born in Canada; not working. 3) Donald W. Ross, son; white single male 18 years of age; born in Canada; in school. 4) Mary E. Ross, daughter; white single female 17 years of age; born in England; in school. 5) Morris Costello, servant; Filipino widower 45 years of age; born in the Philippines; a cook in a private home; earns $900.