Rita Ann Yaroush

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of Rita Ann Yaroush peacefully at her home in Boulder Colorado on December 4, 2022 at the age of 74. Rita was born on September 7th, 1948 in Bridgeport Connecticut to Anna Bulbert and William Yaroush.

Rita was The first in her family to attend and graduate college. Fascinated at the time by possibilities 0f space travel, Rita came to the University of Colorado, aspiring to become an astronaut. Under the guidance of Bruce Ekstrand, her interests shifted to Psychology, with a focus on sleep and memory. Graduating in 1970, she enrolled for graduate work at the University of Denver, entering a joint training program in experimental and clinical psychology. In 1973, Rita entered a gap year to study psycho-physiology at the University in Munich, Germany , and intern in a psychiatric hospital in the same city supported by a Fulbright Award. She finished her PhD work at the University of Denver in 1980 and was appointed an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Tulsa.. Rita’s work there was exceptional and she was in line for tenure. However, Rita was in love with Colorado. When an opportunity opened for her in 1982 to return to Denver at the National Jewish Hospital, she took it. She remained in the Denver/Boulder area in various teaching, research, and clinical capacities over the ensuing years. She eventually began a full-time clinical practice in Longmont, working primarily on the treatment of brain injury patients.

Sometime in the 1970’s, Rita also discovered a love for small animals, especially ferrets. It became her passion to care for and save as many domesticated ferrets as possible. She became a volunteer at the Humane Society of Boulder in 2001. As an expert in ferret care, she worked at the Humane Society almost every day and took on the responsibility of training new volunteers and new staff members in ferret care and husbandry. Rita was also directly involved with research in animal radiation therapy to treat adrenal syndrome in ferrets who were not good candidates for surgery. When she discovered that one of her very own ferrets suffered from this disease, she brought Reni to the Flint Animal Cancer Center for Radiation Oncology after learning about them through her ferret rescue. Reni became the first ferret patient to be treated with a small animal irradiator. Rita was very proud to say that the treatment was a success and could be used for other small animals in the future, carrying on her legacy.

Rita was a generous and giving soul. She donated her time and money to many charitable and philanthropic organizations. Rita, along with her husband, Lyle E. Bourne, Jr., established a scholarship to give promising Psychology or Neuroscience majors who were interested in cognition and animal behavior, the Bourne/Yaroush Family Scholarship at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Rita is survived by her husband and best friend of over 50 years, Lyle, stepchildren, Barbara (Phil) Anderson), Betsy (Ron Polanski) Bourne, and Andrew (Celia Lee) Bourne; sisters; Lillian Fasnacht and Juliann Kemp: numerous nieces and nephews and 4 of her beloved ferrets.

She will be greatly missed. A memorial service will be held in the spring.