Isaac/Isidor/I Eugene Gould

I. Eugene Gould, born Isidor/Isack Gold, was born in Chicago of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents, with roots in two Ukrainian rabbinical dynasties. An only child, he had several half siblings from his father's first marriage. Bullied as a child for being Jewish, he chose to take a new middle name and to go by Eugene, or Gene. He also changed his last name to Gould. He and his family moved to San Francisco so that he could study dentistry. As a student, he encountered significant anti-semitism again. In order to be accepted into dental school, he committed textbooks to memory so that he could not be denied entrance. He and his parents later moved down to Pasadena so that he could study orthodontia with the renowned Dr. Angle. He became one of the earliest practicing orthodontists and is credited with the invention of the "headcap" alternative of wearing braces to move teeth. He always said he enjoyed being an engineer of the mouth. He was one of the original tenants of the First Trust Building on Colorado Blvd, built in 1928 and now a historic cultural landmark. He had his office on the 7th floor of that building for over 40 years. From its rooftop terrace, one could look directly down on the Rose Parade as it passed by every January 1st.

He met his wife, Belle Rose (originally Rosenbloom), through a local Jewish”Outdoor Literary Society” bookclub-hiking group. This group would hike up into the mountains, where one member would deliver a book review of the selection of the month. When they married the joke was that he had turned a rose to gold. He and Belle settled in Altadena on an unusual spacious property immediately bordering Eaton Canyon and the San Gabriel Mountains. The property is known to have been the site of a Native American fire circle. They built their early-California-themed home one room at a time over several years, and left most of the property as a very large rather native garden "sanctuary" with a wooden dance pavilion built into the middle of it. There they hosted regular square dancing for years with a particular group of friends. They were also known to host large outdoor bar-b-ques on these premises. They were founding members of the Severance Club, a local organization that for years hosted talks on a variety of subjects by interesting lecturers. As hobbies, Gene collected stamps, raised bees, and built and installed his own rather large outdoor telescope, grinding the lenses himself. His favorite thing to do was to lecture to his captive young orthodontic patients on whatever interesting thing he had just learned reading National Geographic or other periodical. He would have made an excellent professor, if an absent-minded one.