Richard Boolootian Obituary

Richard (Dick) Andrew Boolootian completed his last mortal orbit around the sun on September 8th, 2024, one month shy of his 97th birthday. Known to many as Dr. B, he embraced life, was a dedicated father, scientist, educator par excellence, and possessed boundless energy and positivity, with a laugh and smile that were unforgettable.
Born in 1927, in Fresno to immigrant parents who fled the genocide in Armenia, he entered life into a family that farmed for a living. Richard seemed to possess limitless skills and abilities, being an expert ice skater, a tenor who sang opera, preparer of skeletons from deceased zoo animals (the maceration process was not popular with neighbors, but did yield the most beautiful lawn in town), a pilot, a mountaineer, skier and storyteller. He served in the US Army Air Corps (Air Force) at the end of WWII in the Philippines, developing as a pilot and collecting butterflies, by permission of the base commander, an entomologist.
Richard received his BA and MA degrees from Fresno State College, and a PhD in Zoology from Stanford University. He studied elephant seals and killer whales, was instrumental in documenting and defending the sea otter, and both filmed and produced a movie widely shown on a creature that had been thought to be near extinction. He had the Navy fly him up and down the California coast in a helicopter, providing him with a large format camera, to visually document both otter and elephant seal populations.
He was an associate professor of Zoology at UCLA for ten years, during which time he also regularly took groups of grade school students to the ocean, instilling a love of science and learning in all those who went. He spent years collecting data on sea urchins from Canada to Baja California, studying their reproductive physiology, and leading to the discovery of a primitive heart, which earned him a cover on Science magazine. He worked for the AEC (now DOE) on Enewetak atoll. He wrote and edited more than twenty college textbooks, and some two hundred research papers. Not long after he arrived at UCLA, he discovered the newly opened Trader Vics, an establishment that would be a part of his life for fifty years.
He founded Science Software Systems which developed AV and computer software for high schools and colleges, and he developed consumer, management and employee training programs for industry, conducting hundreds of workshops on effective communications and business and technical writing.
With long time friend Buzz Aldrin, he helped develop a syllabus for training United Airline pilots for shuttle flight, and together they developed experiments and wrote papers on space sickness and its causes for NASA.
Beginning in the mid-70s, he joined The Mirman School for Gifted Children as teacher and head of the science department. He would go on to spend 30 years there, and always considered it the highlight of his life. He also began a summer program for students from age 9 to 14, traveling from Alaska and Canada to Mexico, Hawaii, Florida, most of the western states, The Galápagos Islands, Costa Rica, Midway Atoll, South Africa, with dozens of outings in both Northern and Southern California.
He served on more boards than there are hours in a day, functioned as editor for a number of journals, and was a philanthropic supporter of schools and science programs. He was an extraordinary cook, and hosted the Thursday morning breakfast program at Mirman for a couple of decades.
More than anything, he was an extraordinarily loving and beautiful soul who touched the lives of many. He was loved by his students and his friends and, most of all, by his family. He lived a long, incredibly full and productive life, and his resilience and humor traveled with him to his very last moments.
He was predeceased by his first wife, Georgia, and by his son Alan. He is survived by his sons Mark (Camilla) and Craig, grandsons Richard and Robert Boolootian, and granddaughters Brittany Favero (Sebastian, and great granddaughters Amelia and Gianna), and Trixie Weber (Edward, and great grandchildren Emily, Juliana, James, and Allison), and former wife Mary Jo Blue.
He is also survived by the staff at Maple House II, where he spent the last five years of his life. There has never been a place more beautiful or filled with more love and kindness than Maple House II, and the staff there were loved by Richard every bit as much as he loved his family.
Hospice of Santa Cruz County helped usher Richard through his last months, and the care they extended to him and the entire family was something none of us could have done without. They are an extraordinary group of compassionate individuals who were always available, and they are the standard to which all end of life care should aspire.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Hospice of Santa Cruz County in Richard's name. A graveside service was held in Fresno on September 25th. Anyone wishing more info should contact Mark at [email protected] or 831.212.0518