Government Official and Civic Activist. He graduated from Albany Academy in 1875, and soon afterwards was appointed to the staff of Governor Samuel Tilden as Assistant Paymaster General of the New York National Guard with the rank of Colonel. From 1883 to 1889 Rice served as Secretary to Governors Grover Cleveland and David Hill. In 1895 he was appointed to the US Civil Service Commission, filling the vacancy created when Theodore Roosevelt resigned and serving until 1898. In 1915 he became a member of the New York State Civil Service Commission, and he served as President from 1919 to 1920 and 1931 to 1937. From 1922 to 1929 he was Chairman of the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, a private organization that promoted civil service reform. Rice and his wife were authorities on carillons and wrote several books about them, and Rice was the main promoter of building the Albany City Hall carillon as a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I. In addition, Rice was a consultant for Milton B. Medary on creation of the Bok Tower carillon in Lake Wales, Florida. He was also a collector of documents related to Grover Cleveland, and the papers Rice donated to the New York State Library included several newspaper and magazine articles on Cleveland, as well as many of Cleveland's speeches and letters. The mansion owned by Rice and his wife was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and later donated to the Albany Institute of History and Art. Now known as the Rice Building, it is the only freestanding Beaux-Arts mansion in the city.

Government Official and Civic Activist. He graduated from Albany Academy in 1875, and soon afterwards was appointed to the staff of Governor Samuel Tilden as Assistant Paymaster General of the New York National Guard with the rank of Colonel. From 1883 to 1889 Rice served as Secretary to Governors Grover Cleveland and David Hill. In 1895 he was appointed to the US Civil Service Commission, filling the vacancy created when Theodore Roosevelt resigned and serving until 1898. In 1915 he became a member of the New York State Civil Service Commission, and he served as President from 1919 to 1920 and 1931 to 1937. From 1922 to 1929 he was Chairman of the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, a private organization that promoted civil service reform. Rice and his wife were authorities on carillons and wrote several books about them, and Rice was the main promoter of building the Albany City Hall carillon as a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I. In addition, Rice was a consultant for Milton B. Medary on creation of the Bok Tower carillon in Lake Wales, Florida. He was also a collector of documents related to Grover Cleveland, and the papers Rice donated to the New York State Library included several newspaper and magazine articles on Cleveland, as well as many of Cleveland's speeches and letters. The mansion owned by Rice and his wife was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and later donated to the Albany Institute of History and Art. Now known as the Rice Building, it is the only freestanding Beaux-Arts mansion in the city.