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Speaker 1: On the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

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Speaker 1: your talents, a person invested in your success. Express Employment

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Speaker 1: Professionals understands what it takes to land a new position

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Speaker 1: at a top employer or start a new career in

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Speaker 1: today's job market. Express Noose Jobs, Get to no Express,

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Speaker 1: Go to expresspros dot com. Welcome to on the Job.

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Speaker 1: This season, we're bringing you stories about people finding their

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Speaker 1: professional stride by virtue of who they know, whether it's

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Speaker 1: breathing new life into an age old profession, taking the

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Speaker 1: reins in a family business, forging your own path with

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Speaker 1: a new idea, or landing the perfect job doing something

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Speaker 1: you'd never before even considered. The final episode of this

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Speaker 1: season is about a man named Jim Lurita. His work

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Speaker 1: as a veterinarian in the town of Hope, Maine has

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Speaker 1: had a profound effect on a lot of people. He

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Speaker 1: was always really good with animals. You know, we had

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Speaker 1: dogs and cats and all of that, and he was

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Speaker 1: probably the one who really got them the best. The

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Speaker 1: story of Jim LaRita and the trajectory of his work

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Speaker 1: is a pretty wild one, and a big part of

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Speaker 1: that trajectory was his brother, Tom. So I'm Tom Lata.

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Speaker 1: I am Jim Larita's elder brother. Tom is the CEO

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Speaker 1: of New Leaf Symbiotics, which is a big plant microbio

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Speaker 1: company in Saint Louis, But in his early days he

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Speaker 1: had a much different job. The Ladies and Gentlemen Boys

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Speaker 1: and Girls Welcome Rule to Carson and Barns, the world's

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Speaker 1: only five ring circus. Tom went to college for about

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Speaker 1: two years before leaving in nineteen seventy seven to become

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Speaker 1: a juggler and ring announcer at Carson and Barnes, the

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Speaker 1: largest tinted circus in America. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prima

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Speaker 1: Ballerina of spangle Land. Ladies and gentlemen, the Amazing Captain

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Speaker 1: Donald car Tom and Jim grew up in a rural

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Speaker 1: part of the Adirondacks before moving to the closed off

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Speaker 1: suburbs of Yorktown Heights in New York. But one summer

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Speaker 1: a two bit circus came through town and captivated them.

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Speaker 1: It was this big window into a world that they

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Speaker 1: just hadn't known before. You know, there was always this

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Speaker 1: image of running away and joining the circus, of course,

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Speaker 1: that lots of people grew up with, and that is

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Speaker 1: in fact what we ended up doing. Tom ran off

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Speaker 1: to the circus first. Meanwhile, Jim was in college studying

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Speaker 1: zoology when Tom called him and said that he could

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Speaker 1: get him a job with animals and circus. And the

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Speaker 1: job was shoveling elephant maneuver because so we had twenty

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Speaker 1: six elephants that were traveling with the show. It's a

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Speaker 1: lot of elephant maneuver. You have no idea how much

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Speaker 1: the maneuver that is. Jim showed incredible talent for working

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Speaker 1: with the elephants and eventually worked his way up to

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Speaker 1: trainer for the second largest herd of elephants in the

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Speaker 1: United States. We would have what was called the Long mount,

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Speaker 1: so all twenty six elephants would come rumbling into the tent.

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Speaker 1: It was a huge tent. The first elephant, who was

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Speaker 1: the matriarch, would stop, and then one behind her would

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Speaker 1: get on her haunches and put her to front feet

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Speaker 1: on the back of the first one, and then the third,

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Speaker 1: and the fourth, et cetera, all the way through. So

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Speaker 1: you know, my script was now count them. Then it

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Speaker 1: was one, two, all the way to twenty six. And

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Speaker 1: I guarantee, and no one who saw that, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's ever going to forget that. Once he worked with elephants,

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Speaker 1: he was stuck on that. He would you know, he

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Speaker 1: loved elephants and that was that was always his dream.

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Speaker 1: Jim later told Tom that when he left the circus,

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Speaker 1: he made a promise to one of the elephants that

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Speaker 1: one day he'd be back. They both left the circus

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Speaker 1: After a few years, Jim went out to do a

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Speaker 1: ton of cool jobs. He worked on an Alaskan oil rig.

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Speaker 1: He worked on Japanese fishing boats, monitoring sustainable practices. He

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Speaker 1: went to India to study elephants, and eventually he ended

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Speaker 1: up in this little town in Maine called Hope, where

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Speaker 1: he was going to open up his own veterinarian office.

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Speaker 1: People in the community there immediately loved Jim. Tom said

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Speaker 1: he was always a guy that people wanted to be around,

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Speaker 1: but he thinks that he still kind of always preferred

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Speaker 1: the company of animals. He would say, you know, people

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Speaker 1: are mean, people are dishonest, and animals are not. The

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Speaker 1: animals are who they are. I remember being in his

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Speaker 1: vet practice and there'd be some dog come in and

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Speaker 1: it was growling and you could see this thing was

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Speaker 1: going to bite, and I was like, WHOA, I don't

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Speaker 1: want to go near this animal. He would just walk

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Speaker 1: up to it, you know, put his hand on it,

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Speaker 1: and he had no fear, and the dog felt that

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Speaker 1: and would immediately calm down. It was amazing, really, he says,

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Speaker 1: if your dog was sick, you could call Jim at

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Speaker 1: one am and he'd head right over. And if he

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Speaker 1: didn't have any money, he'd just say pay me when

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Speaker 1: he can. That's just who he was. In fact, he

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Speaker 1: was a terrible business man in that sense because he

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Speaker 1: didn't he didn't really equate the fact that he was

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Speaker 1: doing this thing that he loved with animals to the

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Speaker 1: idea that he also was supposed to be making money,

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Speaker 1: and he could have been on Park Avenue, who in

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Speaker 1: a vet practice, you know, making a gazillion dollars. But

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Speaker 1: he really wanted to be in Maine. And he always

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Speaker 1: had this dream of having elephants, so much so that

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Speaker 1: he had this little picture of an elephant on the

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Speaker 1: wall in his office and he told everyone who came

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Speaker 1: in one day, I'm going to take care of elephants

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Speaker 1: here in Maine. Did you think he was crazy the

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Speaker 1: first time he told you? Well, I thought it was unusual.

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Speaker 1: This is Carrie Lurita, Jim's wife of twenty years. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I just seemed but I was so used to, you know,

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Speaker 1: off the wall sort of wacky things from him, and

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Speaker 1: he just came at life in a different way, and

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Speaker 1: I believed it one hundred percent. Yes, I thought it

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Speaker 1: was weird and crazy, but I didn't doubt it for

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Speaker 1: a second. Carrie first met Jim bringing her ex boyfriend's

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Speaker 1: cat to the clinic. She and that guy eventually broke up,

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Speaker 1: and after just two dates, him and Carrie moved in

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Speaker 1: together and it was instant and totally meant to be.

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Speaker 1: He was magnetic. He had no judgment of anyone ever.

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Speaker 1: A couple of years after they met, they got married.

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Speaker 1: They ended up having two boys, Henry and Lewis, And

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Speaker 1: the whole time they were together, Carrie knew that the

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Speaker 1: elephant thing was eventually going to happen, because that's just

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Speaker 1: the kind of guy that he was. Exactly he said

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Speaker 1: he was going to do something, he did. If he

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Speaker 1: said he was gonna anything, anything that he said, he

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Speaker 1: followed through on, and so I knew, I knew it

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Speaker 1: would happen. In twenty eleven, it did. We're here in Hugo,

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma to begin the process of moving these animals up

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Speaker 1: to Maine. Rosie and Opal are going to be coming

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Speaker 1: to Maine this week to begin their new life. This

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Speaker 1: is a clip of Jim. He started a YouTube channel

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Speaker 1: with a bunch of videos documenting the elephants. This is

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Speaker 1: one of the first. When he and Tom established Hope

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Speaker 1: Pants in Maine, which was basically an old folks home

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Speaker 1: and rehab center for retired circus elephants. Their first two

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Speaker 1: elephants were Rosie and Opal, who were from the original

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Speaker 1: herd that Tom and Jim worked with in the circus

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Speaker 1: years before. I think they're going to be very comfortable.

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Speaker 1: They're going to have an hour and a half of

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Speaker 1: physical therapy a day each. They are going to be

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Speaker 1: exercised regularly. Their feet are going to be worked on

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Speaker 1: every day. Rosie and Opal both had a lot of

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Speaker 1: physical ailments. And we're about forty years old when they

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Speaker 1: came to Maine, which is pretty old for elephants. Rosie

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Speaker 1: was very young when Jim first met her in the circus,

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Speaker 1: and out of the twenty six elephants, Jim really bonded

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Speaker 1: with her. She is the elephant that Jim promised he'd

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Speaker 1: come back for all those years ago. Rosie was the

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Speaker 1: first elephant that was a candidate for this, and she

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Speaker 1: had a severe arthritis, so she had a real limb.

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Speaker 1: And she was also an outcast in the herd because

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Speaker 1: she was more interested in people and she was interested

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Speaker 1: in the elephants, and the other elephants didn't like that.

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Speaker 1: In fact, even when I had her when she was young,

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Speaker 1: when I was taller than her her, you couldn't walk

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Speaker 1: her past certain elephants. They pushed her around and they

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Speaker 1: would kick at her, and they would throw their trunks

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Speaker 1: at her. And so we said, well that's not a

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Speaker 1: good way to live. And so we said, can we

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Speaker 1: find a special friend for her, and we did find

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Speaker 1: a special friend and her name is Opal. So she

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Speaker 1: and Opal get along together very well. So Opal was

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Speaker 1: someone who kind of got along with Rosie. So that's

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Speaker 1: how the decision was made by Jim and the owners

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Speaker 1: of the Elephants that they would come to Maine to

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Speaker 1: go through this rehabilitation and become part of Hope Elephants.

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Speaker 1: I felt an instant connection to Opeal. I just remember

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Speaker 1: the eye contact and it was crazy, unbelievable. Oh, she

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Speaker 1: said to give girl. Why. This is from a video

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Speaker 1: of Carrie holding Opal's trunk and walking with her on

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Speaker 1: a sunny day. Yeah, good girl. Oh Jimmy would say

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Speaker 1: she was you know, she was mischievous and he would

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Speaker 1: say she has crazy eyes. Ope, it was a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a wild card. But I like that about

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Speaker 1: her shoe spicy, kind of like me, which is probably

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Speaker 1: why we had that instant initial connection. And Rosie was

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Speaker 1: it was very sweet and kind of more docile. I

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Speaker 1: just think of her swaying back and forth with her

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Speaker 1: eyes sort of half closed, just there, you know, comfortable.

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Speaker 1: They're peaceful. And this one is from a clip of

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Speaker 1: Jim sprang Rosie down with cold water. We're all your

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Speaker 1: friends jealous. Oh yeah, they didn't even know what to

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Speaker 1: do with themselves when we brought them over. These are

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Speaker 1: Carrie and Jim's two boys, Henry and Lewis. Yeah I'm Lewis,

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Speaker 1: Jim's youngest son, Um Henry, I'm the oldest. Both boys

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Speaker 1: are in college, Henry studying zoology just like his dad.

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Speaker 1: But you guys are like the elephant kids. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've got some comments about the smell after goat shoveled

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Speaker 1: down in the morning and aren't eight am classes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like having just regular pets. Rosie and Opal

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Speaker 1: became a huge part of the family's life and became

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Speaker 1: a fixture in the community. Everyone says. They played a

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Speaker 1: lot of tricks on each other and on the family,

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Speaker 1: hiding hay from one another and using their trunks to

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Speaker 1: steal treats from your back pocket when you weren't looking.

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Speaker 1: They even figured out how to turn off the electric

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Speaker 1: fences around the enclosure. They're like two mischievous old ladies. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly what they were. Pretty much anything missing was

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Speaker 1: a handbag. We'll get back to the story in a second. First,

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Speaker 1: a word from Express Employment professionals. A strong work ethic,

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Speaker 1: takes pride in a job well done, sweats over the details.

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Speaker 1: This is you. But to get an honest day's work,

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Speaker 1: you need a response. You need a callback, You need

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Speaker 1: a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we understand

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Speaker 1: and what it takes to get a job. It takes

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Speaker 1: more than just online searches to land a job. It

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Speaker 1: takes someone who will identify your talents, a person invested

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Speaker 1: in your success. At Express, we can even complete your

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Speaker 1: application with you over the phone, will prepare you for interviews,

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Speaker 1: and will connect you to the right company. Plus, we'll

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Speaker 1: never charge a fee to find you a job. At Express.

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Speaker 1: We could put you to work with companies of all

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Speaker 1: sizes and industries, from the production floor to the front office.

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Speaker 1: Express Nose Jobs, get to No Express, find your location

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Speaker 1: at expresspros dot com or on the Express Jobs app.

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Speaker 1: And now back to our story. Hope Elephants was completely

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Speaker 1: open to the public and they'd have school groups and

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Speaker 1: all sorts of people travel from everywhere to see Rosie

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Speaker 1: and Opal and to Jim. It was a lot more

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Speaker 1: than just a retirement home. The other purpose was education,

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Speaker 1: and some of the people who came to hope elephants

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Speaker 1: walked away thinking, oh my god, this is just so

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Speaker 1: amazing and so cool, and these animals are so beautiful.

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Speaker 1: And the idea was that people would be inspired in

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Speaker 1: some form or in some way to care about elephants

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Speaker 1: through seeing the interaction and trying to preserve elephants or

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Speaker 1: at least bring awareness of the probable extinction of elephants.

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Speaker 1: The elephant enclosure was literally in carrying Jin's backyard and

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Speaker 1: taking care of them was a ton of work. Would

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Speaker 1: you say your dad was kind of like a workaholic. Oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: for sure. Like elephants just functioned with the sun. So

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Speaker 1: seven days a week, just dawn down at desk. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was, you know, all in. I mean if they

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Speaker 1: were if one of them was sick, he'd put a

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Speaker 1: cot up in the barn and you know, spend the

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Speaker 1: night there making sure that they were okay. Or people

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Speaker 1: used to say, Jim, you need to take a break,

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Speaker 1: you need to come in. You know, he was always

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Speaker 1: in the barn and he didn't have to be. He

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Speaker 1: wants to be. I mean, he loved, loved, loved being

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Speaker 1: around them. Jim had a great rapport with them, great rapport.

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Speaker 1: This is Cindy Preventure. I was the other elephant trainer.

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Speaker 1: To keep elephants, you legally have to have a backup

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Speaker 1: handler on call in case of emergency. She's retired now.

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Speaker 1: She lives in New Hampshire, but she and her son

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Speaker 1: Travis would go up and take care of the elephants

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Speaker 1: with Jim. They became like family. So one night in

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Speaker 1: September of twenty fourteen, Cindy said that she gave Jim

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Speaker 1: a call to give him crap because her son said

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Speaker 1: that Jim had been working too hard. This was on

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Speaker 1: a Monday night, you know, andcuse he saw my number

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Speaker 1: and he was like, hey girl, because that's what he

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Speaker 1: all has said. Hey girl. You know one of the

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Speaker 1: elephants had she had a bad belly, and he had

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Speaker 1: been and he had been walking her a little bit

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Speaker 1: and over the weekend, and my son had mentioned, while, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's tired, you know, he hasn't gotten much sleep. And

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Speaker 1: we had just had this conversation like weeks prior to

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Speaker 1: you know, you're not alone in this, like I can

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Speaker 1: come up and help, you know, so that you're not

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Speaker 1: exhausted whatever. And so he's like, yeah, no, she's fine,

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Speaker 1: she's better. Now, I'm going to get some sleep tonight

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Speaker 1: because I'm like, I'm on my way. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: grab a bag and he's like, no, no, you know,

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Speaker 1: we'll see you on Wednesday. And the very next morning,

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Speaker 1: Carrie called me, could you kind of bring me back

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Speaker 1: to the day that, um, okay, hang on one second,

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Speaker 1: that's okay, okay. So the ratine was he would go

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Speaker 1: out first first, first thing in the morning or unless

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Speaker 1: he'd slept there, and check the girls, give them their hay,

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Speaker 1: give them their you know, just the usual morning routine.

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Speaker 1: And we had a baby monitor left over from the

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Speaker 1: kids that we had in the living room so that

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Speaker 1: whenever he did come in, he would you know, listen

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Speaker 1: for anything going on out there, any noises or any

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Speaker 1: upset if you know, if they if he'd left them alone.

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Speaker 1: And I heard him make a bizarre sound, you know,

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Speaker 1: and then he said no Rosie, and I thought, well,

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Speaker 1: that's weird. And I went out there and the doors locked.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't find the keys, and by the time I

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Speaker 1: got in, he was laying on the ground and both

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Speaker 1: the girls were just you know, in the pen, and

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Speaker 1: he was laying there. Jim his hip was shot and

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Speaker 1: he knew he needed a new hip, and he was

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Speaker 1: always putting it off, and like the last person he

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Speaker 1: ever took care of was himself. So what I think

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Speaker 1: happened is probably he fell, and I think that Rosie

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Speaker 1: tried to help him up, you know the way an

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Speaker 1: elephant helps another elephant up as they used their foot

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Speaker 1: to sort of, you know, pick them up. And I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm one hundred percent sure she didn't try to hurt him.

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Speaker 1: You know, she tried to help him, but in helping him,

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Speaker 1: crushed his crushed him. It was my freshman year, and

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Speaker 1: then I just hopped to blame him back. You know.

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Speaker 1: It was like a Tuesday, and I was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: like woke up early for school and like, um, like

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Speaker 1: heard some stuff going on through the monitor. You know.

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Speaker 1: It was just like right in the heat of it,

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Speaker 1: it was kind of popped underwhere I felt really really

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Speaker 1: protective of the boys and of I don't know, I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to be in a bubble. I didn't want

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Speaker 1: to I didn't want the real world to be out

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Speaker 1: there waiting. I took a while for to get through that.

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Speaker 1: I remember pulling out of my driveway and I remember

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Speaker 1: pulling up to their house. This again as Cindy, the

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Speaker 1: other elephant trainer. The two elephants were in the outside

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Speaker 1: pasture when I got there, and you know, I just

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Speaker 1: went out. Now, I didn't even call them or anything.

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Speaker 1: I just kind of stood and they both came like

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Speaker 1: walking up and like Rosie was like putting her trunk

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Speaker 1: all over me and chirping and as if to say,

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Speaker 1: like something's wrong, and they knew. I mean, it took

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Speaker 1: a couple of days for me to even go out there,

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Speaker 1: and then when I did, I didn't want to leave.

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Speaker 1: It was really emotional in a good way. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I missed them, and I could tell they missed me,

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Speaker 1: but it was that much harder because I knew they

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Speaker 1: were leaving so many so many emotions, you know, in

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Speaker 1: all the shock, it was like what are we going

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Speaker 1: to do, you know, with these animals, and what's the

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Speaker 1: right thing to do? And we quickly realized, okay, this

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Speaker 1: is it. I mean, we can't go on with Hope elephants,

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Speaker 1: and they have to go back to Oklahoma, which was

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Speaker 1: always the plan, by the way, and Jimmy had always said,

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Speaker 1: if something happens to me, they need to go back

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Speaker 1: to the herd. And so that's what we did. The

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Speaker 1: rest of Rosie and Opal's original herd that Tom and

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Speaker 1: Jim had worked with in their circus days had retired

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Speaker 1: to a similar organization in Oklahoma called Endangered Arc. Within

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Speaker 1: a few days, they sent up a truck and Rosie

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Speaker 1: and Opal were on the road south. Yeah. I was

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Speaker 1: sad to see that go, but I don't think it

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Speaker 1: would ever be the same if Jim wasn't there, because

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Speaker 1: like Jim was like he was a superstar. You know,

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Speaker 1: people die all the time, but not many people touch

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Speaker 1: as many other beings as as Jim did. The memorial

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Speaker 1: for Jim was a massive event, and hope it was

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Speaker 1: even televised. Oh that was wild. I mean, there must

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Speaker 1: have been a thousand people there. I mean, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: it seems like a fiction kind just his trajectory in

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Speaker 1: his life. You know, he kind of just had this

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Speaker 1: like magnetism magnetism about him. You know, it attracted people

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Speaker 1: and to like help people together. And that's true both

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Speaker 1: in the context of family and I think the community

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Speaker 1: as well. A lot of the decisions that I make

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Speaker 1: and a lot of the things that are doing a

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Speaker 1: lot of the way I approach the world is a

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Speaker 1: product of how he did all of those things. I

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Speaker 1: mean that a true, true lesson was that he, you know,

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Speaker 1: he followed his dream. He had that dream since he

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Speaker 1: was young, and he made it happen. Yes, it was

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Speaker 1: horrible and devastating and just shattering, but he, you know,

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Speaker 1: he said he was going to do it. It was

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Speaker 1: his dream and he did it. I mean that that

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Speaker 1: is worth everything, that above all, to have the boys

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Speaker 1: know that, and to know that myself he was living

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Speaker 1: his dream, which I don't think very many people can

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Speaker 1: see that. Even with Hope elephants gone, Rosie and Opal's

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Speaker 1: presence in the town is still felt there and is

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Speaker 1: a big part of their story now, and Jim's work

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Speaker 1: bringing attention to the conservation of elephants reverberates far outside

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Speaker 1: of Maine's borders. Even National Geographic made a video remembered

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Speaker 1: Jim and all that he did. In twenty seventeen, Opal

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Speaker 1: passed away at the age of forty eight. Rosie is

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Speaker 1: still living outer years, happily amongst the herd that Jim

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Speaker 1: first met her him Jim Larta was a veterinarian. That

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Speaker 1: was his job, but his real work was providing a

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Speaker 1: window into a world that people hadn't owned before, something

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Speaker 1: bigger than that. He took a crazy idea and made

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Speaker 1: it into his legacy, a story that will be told

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Speaker 1: by everyone who knew him for years and years to come.

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Speaker 1: The biggest thing that I got from hearing jim story

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Speaker 1: is I think it's important that instead of who we

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Speaker 1: are being defined by what we do for a living,

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Speaker 1: we really need to start thinking about what we do

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Speaker 1: for a living being defined by who we are. That

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Speaker 1: is how Jim LaRita lived his life, and you've got

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Speaker 1: to wonder what would the world look like if we

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Speaker 1: all pursued work like that. If you had to give

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Speaker 1: a like a Ringmaster exit to Jim, what would you

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Speaker 1: How would you do it? Probably something like Ladies and gentlemen,

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Speaker 1: the man and the legend. Jim LaRita, He'll be back.

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Speaker 1: There they go, those ponderous packader's, Rosie Opal and Jim.

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Speaker 1: Huge thanks to the LaRita family, to Cindy Preventure, Marty

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Speaker 1: Lorita an Endangered arc. You can find pictures and videos

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Speaker 1: of Jim, Rosie and Opal on our website Expresspros dot com.

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Speaker 1: Slash podcast for on the Job, I'm otus Gray. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening to on the Job brought to you by

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Speaker 1: Express Employment Professionals. Find out more at expresspros dot com.

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Speaker 1: This season of On the Job is produced by Audiation

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Speaker 1: and Red Seat Ventures. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens.

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Speaker 1: Our producer is Otis Gray. The show is mixed by

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Speaker 1: Matt Noble at The Loft in Bronxville, New York. Find

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Speaker 1: us on iHeartRadio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what

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Speaker 1: you heard, please consider rating or reviewing the show on

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time.

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Speaker 1: For more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Audiation