R. E. Page; Landscaped Beverly Hills

Raymond E. Page, dean of California landscape architects who designed Beverly Hills’ original parks and street tree plantings, has died. He was 96.

Page died Thursday in Beverly Hills, according to Los Angeles Beautiful, an organization he helped create.

The first president of the California Board of Landscape Architects, Page authored legislation to license landscape architects, making California the first state to grant licenses based on examinations. Page held state license No. 2 out of the 800 originally granted in 1955. (A friend of Page who was terminally ill got license No. 1.)

“I guess I pushed so hard for legislation because I was tired of being referred to as a posy planter,” he told The Times in 1987.

Page’s personal clients included Will Rogers, Pola Negri, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford (for whom he designed Pickfair in 1919), Gloria Swanson, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Gregory Peck and Clark Gable.

His Raymond E. Page & Associates of Beverly Hills also designed and maintained the estate grounds of entertainment impresario Jack Wrather, and Wrather’s Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Page’s early designs for Southern California included Los Angeles’ downtown Pershing Square, Liemert Park and the Hollywoodland and Beverlywood subdivisions.

A 1912 graduate of Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena (the forerunner of Caltech), Page attended art schools and later became head gardener for a Pasadena estate before joining the Rodeo Land & Water Co., which developed Beverly Hills.

In a career that spanned more than seven decades, Page designed grounds for public buildings such as Cerritos City Hall, campuses such as Beverly Hills High School, hotels such as the Beverly Wilshire and private residences throughout the United States and in many foreign countries.

He served as Los Angeles County commissioner of the Marina del Rey Design Control Board from 1966 to 1976, and took great pride in his role in the area’s landscape development.

Page was an emeritus fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a recipient of the Man of the Year award from the California Contractors Assn.

Page, who admitted several failed attempts to quit smoking, attributed his longevity to favorable genetics.