After 52 years, more than 40,000 family charts, and nearly 100,000 patients, Dr. Robert Kaplan is taking his final at bat. The beloved Los Alamitos pediatrician celebrated his retirement this week with an office party, patient visits, and a sendoff surrounded by the colleagues, friends, and families who’ve been part of his extraordinary career. For the community he’s served since 1979, it marks the end of an era.
Dr. Kaplan’s philosophy was simple and unwavering: make every child feel seen, heard, and safe. Families who brought their own children to him after being his patients themselves speak to the rare kind of trust he built — the kind where a worried parent’s first instinct was always, “Call Dr. Kaplan. Everything will be fine.”
His colleagues at Los Alamitos Pediatrics and Rady Children’s Health (formerly CHOC) describe him the same way: a sweetheart, a straight shooter, and a doctor who always defaulted to what was best for the kids.
His career spans a dramatically different era of pediatrics. In the early years, Dr. Kaplan and his late partner Dr. Joel Widelitz ran a practice that functioned almost like a small emergency clinic, stabilizing critically ill children before transport, and regularly treating illnesses that vaccines have since made rare. He was also a pioneer in pediatric mental health and addiction treatment long before those became standard areas of focus in children’s healthcare.
Since 2018, Dr. Kaplan’s practice has been part of the primary care network at what is now Rady Children’s Health, an association he says allowed him to keep practicing exactly the way he always wanted to.
He plans to spend retirement traveling with his wife Ronni, enjoying pickleball and golf, and soaking up time with his two children and five grandchildren.
The white coat is retired, but in Los Alamitos, the legend of Dr. Bob is permanent.
