She was born May 12, 1941, the first of three daughters, to Maurice and Fernande Ricord in Winchendon, Mass.
She excelled in school, taking secretarial courses in Murdock High School. Nearing graduation, she took a federal government test, passed and with her mother’s blessing took a bus to Washington, D.C., to start her secretarial service with the U.S. Navy. She enjoyed living in a woman’s boardinghouse where she met people whom she considered wonderful friends.
In 1960 she met a mysterious man, Adam Bortz. They dated and became good friends. On March 19, 1961, she agreed to his request that she marry him. On a rainy morning on August 26 they were married in her church, right across from her apartment. They moved to their first apartment in Bethesda, Md. Two years later they welcomed their first child, a boy they named Tor David.
Adam was working in architecture and received an offer to move to Vermont in 1966. The three of them moved to Burlington the Fourth of July weekend. Early in September the two of them signed the Book to become members of the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington. Rita stayed home to care for Tor. Less than a year later they bought land in Underhill Flats and had a home shell erected on it during the summer. Their second son, Karl Fredrik, was born on his father’s birthday. They moved into the unfinished interior on Labor Day weekend. Rita stayed home. When Adam came home from work they would work on completing all of the interior, including hardwood floors.
Less than a year later their third son, Seth Jonathan, was born. Now Rita still wanted a daughter, but they had to be creative. They had UU Society friends who belonged to a group called Room for One More. With their advice, Rita and Adam applied to adopt. They’d gotten the boys the regular way, but their daughter, Kirsten Laura, came by “stork.” The family of five went to the adoption agency to meet her and take her home. Her sons were very excited about having a sister. The family’s picture appeared in the Burlington newspaper. Rita was itching to get back to being a secretary, but stayed home until all of her children were attending Jericho schools all day.
She found offices that needed a secretary, and those offices soon realized that she was a real gem, who was very efficient. Among the offices she served were the office of Camp Abnaki and Thomas and Alexander, Attorneys, in Burlington. She served at Knight Consulting Engineers for several years.
But Adam had to find work outside Vermont, so they left Tor here and moved to the Utica, N.Y., area with the other three children. Adam worked for a large engineering/architectural firm. Rita applied to them and was accepted as temporary secretary to the president. That job became permanent when that secretary returned, but they found her so efficient that they made her the secretary to the landscaping division of 11 engineers.
Adam started his own business, which enabled them to return to Vermont in 1999. Rita found that the American Cancer Society of Vermont was needing a secretary, so she applied. There she started as their efficient main secretary and was switched later to be the secretary to the man who was searching for the money to build a new Hope Lodge in Burlington. Meanwhile, she joined the Champlain Valley Quilt Guild, ‘cause she now had her own sewing room where she could create her quilts. With the Guild she worked herself up to serving as their president, then moved on to being chair of the Community Quilts Committee, who was responsible for meeting the community’s need for donated quilts. When Hope Lodge was nearing completion, she recruited quilting friends to provide a quilt for each of the bedrooms, and was there officiating as those quilts were placed on their beds. The director stated that having a different quilt on each bed “turned it from a house to a home” And Rita was proud to have one of her quilts displayed on a prominent wall.
They moved to Mayfair Park in 2005.
Unfortunately, while in the hospital in December of 2024 for a problem, she was notified that she had pancreatic cancer. What a blow to her and her large family! Her husband took training to be her caregiver by Age Well. Although she fought it as best she could for months, she was informed that the chemo was no longer working. Devastated as she was, she signed up for home health care, and had a wonderful nurse. She continued deteriorating until Thursday, November 20, when she decided she wanted to go to the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester. There she was well taken care of as she suffered her last days. She died on Monday, November 24, at 12:28, with some of the family there.
She is survived by a sister, Rosemarie Goodrich, and her husband, Leston; by her husband of 64 years, Adam Franklin Bortz III; sons Tor David Bortz and his wife, Lorena Bortz, Karl Fredrik Bortz and his companion, Tracy Whitcomb, and Seth Jonathan Bortz and his wife, Lisa Cushing-Bortz; and daughter Kirsten Bortz Harty and her husband, Otis Paul Harty. In addition, there are those nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, whom she adored.
Her memorial service will be held at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, Vt., sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2026. Following it, her ashes will be placed in their Memorial Garden on the western side of the property.
Obituary by her favorite husband.