Jaime Madruga Rita

Jaime Madruga Rita, 68, died unexpectedly at his home on June 24th, 2025 in Rolesville, NC. Jaime was a beloved husband, father, Avô, brother, shipmate, and friend who departed this life too soon. He will be remembered for his kindness, wit and humor, intellect, insatiable curiosity, and love for his family. He was a joyful man who would quietly do anything for the people in his life.
Jaime is survived by his wife of 45 years, Susan Rita; daughters Jennifer Spivey-Rita (Leigh Spivey-Rita), and Sarah Rita (Latatious Morris); two granddaughters, Rowan and Everett Spivey-Rita; his brothers, Carlos, Tony, and Rui; and his long standing archnemesis, Bambi. He was preceded in death by his biological mother, Armanda; his mother, Ana; and his father, Jaime.
Jaime was born on March 3rd, 1957, in Horta, Faial, Portugal. He was proud of his Portuguese heritage and spent time in recent years connecting with cousins and distant relatives. Jaime loved tracking down a good Portuguese food truck or bakery and making his own papo-secos and arroz doce.
Jaime spent his early years in Providence, Rhode Island with his father, mother Ana, and three younger brothers. There he wrestled in high school and developed his love for the Patriots and Portuguese breads and cheeses.
Jaime proudly served in the United States Navy from July 1975 to February 1998, achieving the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 3 during his distinguished career. He was a qualified Naval Aircrew and Naval Aviation Observer, Communication Evaluator.
After recruit training and basic language training he would advance to Chief Petty Officer and eventually was commissioned as a Chief Warrant Officer. During his 23 years of enlisted and commissioned service, he served at duty stations in Washington DC, California, Greece, Maryland, Texas, Spain, and Florida. He deployed frequently throughout the US Sixth and Fifth Fleet areas of operations. Multiple flight duty assignments led to his service aboard carrier-based EA-3B Skywarrior and shore-based EP-3 Aries maritime reconnaissance aircraft. His airborne technical and leadership skills directly supported navy and joint operations in US Sixth and Fifth Fleet areas of operations and NATO air combat operations in the former Yugoslavia.
In addition to direct support of fleet operations, the navy twice entrusted Jaime to train new sailors in formal training environments. At Goodfellow AFB in Texas, he trained and mentored the generation of linguists that would be called on during Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and post 9/11 military operations. Later he would train new cryptologic officers as they began their active service.
Jaime completed his naval service as an early subject matter expert in network security and cyber operations. His awards included the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation medal (three awards), Navy Achievement Medal (two awards), Navy Good Conduct, Navy Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Medal, and NATO Medal.
Following his retirement from the Navy, Jaime pursued a 24-year career as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional for Cisco, most recently as a Solutions Architect. He was a brilliant engineer and a valued team member. Among his many contributions at CISCO, Jaime co invented a cutting edge system for network operations - US 12,323,290 B2: Hierarchical Auto Summary Generation with Multi Task Learning in Networking Recommendations. This system revolutionizes how complex enterprise networks identify, summarize, and address technical issues, enabling smarter, layered insights and actionable recommendations. Jaime's work continues to empower IT teams to manage network health at scale.
Jaime will be remembered for his avid reading and his love of music, video games, and gardening. His home is surrounded by beautiful flowers, bushes, and trees that he lovingly cultivated. Jaime was a life-long learner and continually challenged himself to learn a new instrument or hobby. His office was filled with guitars and ukeleles that he had meticulously refurbished. Jaime adored his granddaughters and Sarah's godchildren, Adrienne and Zander, and he delighted in bringing a smile to their faces.
A memorial gathering will be held from 2-4pm on Sunday, July 6th, at Bright Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the family invites you to plant a tree or consider making a donation in Jaime's honor.