At age 15, Roberta Holden Bole (1876–1950) came with her family to Cleveland from Salt Lake City. Her parents, Liberty and Delia Bulkley Holden, had previously lived in Cleveland but ventured west in the early 1870s to invest in silver mining properties. Liberty Holden, a former professor of literature, purchased the Plain Dealer in 1885 and served as president of the building committee for the new Cleveland Museum of Art after its incorporation in 1913. Delia Holden was active in educational and welfare work.

Roberta Holden followed in her parents’ civic footsteps. A graduate of Miss Mittelberger’s School, she married newspaper publishing executive Benjamin P. Bole in 1907. She donated the original parcel of land for the Holden Arboretum, co-founded Hawken School, helped to preserve the historic Dunham Tavern, donated important works to the art museum and served as a member of its advisory council, and set up a scholarship that allowed Cleveland’s city schools to establish classes for gifted children. After her death, at a memorial service held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, director William Milliken paid tribute: “She probed the depths of liberality and understanding and saw herself as a vehicle for service…. A life such as this does not end; it lives in the unnumbered causes to which she gave herself.”