For 30 Years, Dr. Stuart Siegel Has Spearheaded the Drive to Establish Southern California
‘House’ Call In 1977, there was Philadelphia, and there was Chicago’and that was it. Enter Dr. Stuart Siegel of Childrens Hospital, the man who put Los Angeles on the map. ‘Through my colleagues in the pediatric cancer field,’ Siegel tells the Palisadian-Post, ‘I became aware of the Ronald McDonald Houses in Philadelphia and Chicago, so I came back here to my colleagues in Los Angeles and said this is something beneficial. We need this.’ A Palisadian since May 2005, Siegel led the charge to create a third McDonald care hostel in Los Angeles. Ronald McDonald Houses serve as “homes-away-from-home’ for children undergoing treatment for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses at nearby hospitals, as well as the families of said kids. ‘It was a new concept, and the concept was embraced rapidly,’ recalls Siegel, 64. The effort has been so successful because it’s so easy to see the need. You’re directly helping children in your own community.’ At that time, the House started out as a partnerships between the hospital, McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain, and the Los Angeles Rams. ‘We got together in the restaurant of the Holiday Inn in Woodland Hills, right off the 101, and decided to build a Ronald McDonald House near Childrens Hospital,’ Siegel says. ‘About $6 million to $7 million was raised for that initial house,’ the doctor continues. ‘But the biggest problem is that we didn’t have land.’ ‘We were the first Ronald McDonald House to develop one from scratch,’ Siegel says of the Fountain and Lyman Place location, noting that the Chicago location was formerly a convent. ‘Fortunately, there was a piece of property on Fountain Avenue about a block and a half from the hospital. McDonald’s co-signed a loan and we were able to purchase it.’ Originally a 20-room house opened in September 1980, the Fountain Avenue location was eventually expanded into a 35-room complex. The extra rooms were for ‘transplant patients who couldn’t be mixed in with everyone because of the risk of infection.’ The L.A. facility now houses 80 rooms. Siegel has since led the charity to create additional McDonald Houses in Anaheim, Loma Linda, and Pasadena. Plans for a fifth House are under way in Long Beach. ‘I think it’s generally gotten easier,’ Siegel says of opening a new branch. ‘We’ve learned a lot about how to establish these houses. ‘I’m stepping down as president at the end of the year after 31 years,’ he says, but stresses that he will stay very much involved with the McDonald House organization, including remaining on the board, which he became president of in 1978. [DROPCAP] Siegel grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, and got his medical degrees at Boston University. He spent 1967-69 in pediatric residency at the University of Minnesota. After working at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, he came to the Childrens Hospital in 1972. Initially, the revered medical professional lived in Beverly Glen Canyon, then various parts east, before settling down in the Marquez area. As to why, Siegel quips, ‘It’s what’s known as ‘a marriage.” Siegel lives here with his wife, Barbara Kamenir Siegel, a high-profile attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services in Pacoima. His son from a previous marriage, Joshua, 36, works as an accountant clerk in Sebastopol, California, and lives with his two sons, David, 6, and Elijah, 5. The Childrens Hospital doctor insists that, despite what can be a hairy commute, he really digs living the Palisades. ‘I definitely enjoy the feeling of community,’ Siegel says. ‘I love the weather here. I lived in Arcadia, which is very hot. I really enjoy the temperate weather by the beach and the people in the area.’ [DROPCAP] With gas and hotel prices so prohibitive, a Ronald McDonald House not only assists patients, but offers their families hospital-adjacent housing and some solace. As leader of the McDonald’s charity, Siegel helped expand Ronald McDonald House’s mandate to include Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, a destination that originated on Malibu’s Calamigos Ranch and now has a permanent station near Idyllwild. The 65-acre Apple Canyon site, a year-round getaway, houses kids with such afflictions as brain tumors and leukemia, and offers patients and their families a fun-filled environment to help relieve them of some physical and psychological burden. ‘My primary work is taking care of children and their families. If the families can’t get to the hospital, then I can’t treat them,’ Siegel says. ‘The Ronald McDonald House is the most important part of the role to my profession to making sure that these kids can get the treatment they need. The camp is equally important to helping them have self esteem. Eighty percent of patients who receive treatment are successful, and it’s important that we see them through their treatment. So it’s all connected.’ For information on Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California, www.RMHCSC.org.
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