Dr. Paul B. Roen; Helped Found Hospital

Paul Brant Roen, an internist and one of the few doctors who founded Hollywood Hospital in 1924 and remained on its staff for four decades, died Sunday in his Los Feliz Hills home.

He was 95 and at his death was assisting with the preparation of a book about the hospital, now Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, and its history.

Roen was the internal medicine expert who Edwin O. Palmer called upon to help start the hospital, which the doctors financed themselves. Palmer was believed to be the first area physician to utilize specialists in his Hollywood office. Most of those doctors lived on what was then called “Pill Hill,” an area above Los Feliz Boulevard where many physicians had homes.

Site Near Streetcars

The hospital’s site on North Vermont Avenue, where it still stands, was selected because of its proximity to streetcar lines, said Margaret Burk, who is compiling the hospital’s history.

Roen also helped found the Hollywood Academy of Medicine and the Motion Picture Center and Relief Fund.

A veteran of both world wars, Roen is survived by his wife, Came Lee Johnson; two sons, John and James; a daughter, Charlotte Roen Daily; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.