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In Memoriam

Rita Rogers

Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences

UC Los Angeles
1925-2016

Rita Ruth Rogers, M.D., a child psychiatrist and former Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harbor General/UCLA Medical Center, died on December 14th, at the age of 90. Born in Raduauti, Romania, Professor Rogers (nee Stenzler) and her family were sent to a Nazi labor camp in Ukraine along with all of the Jews of her community, during World War II. After the war she studied at Prague University and then earned her medical degree from Vienna University Medical School. Professor Rogers arrived at Ellis Island, NY in 1953, as a refugee. She did her psychiatric residency at Albany Medical College, where she met her husband, G. Allen Rogers, M.D., a surgeon.

In 1963, they arrived in the South Bay area with their 3 young children. A full professor in Clinical Child Psychiatry at UCLA Medical School, Rita trained residents at Harbor General Hospital/UCLA. She also earned her Master's Degree in Political Science. She lectured throughout the world and was published in international academic journals. She served on the American Psychiatric Association's Task Force on Psychiatry and Foreign Affairs.

Her biography, "The Alchemy of Survival" was written in 1988 by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and psychiatrist John E. Mack, as part of the Radcliffe College Biography series. Dr. Rogers is survived by her three children: David, Judy and Sheila, and seven grandchildren.