My eyes were opened to other great aspects of his life when his friends and colleagues shared stories. Harlow Dawson shared, through tears in his eyes, about Dr. Rice's sacrificial leadership of Mountain View Christian School. Dr. Rice always made sure that the teachers on staff were being paid at the top of the standards for the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), while his own salary, as the school's administrator, was at the bottom of ACSI standards for administrators. Many agree that Dr. Rice's leadership turned around the school's failing finances, giving it years more life in the community.
Lalaine Garoutte shared that Dr. Rice always had a special place in his heart for single mothers and their financial struggles. He paid for many children to go to camp.
Lisa Hansen followed Lalaine's sharing, as she said, with tears in her eyes, "I was one of those single mothers!" Both Lalaine and Lisa worked for Dr. Rice at Mountain View.
Lalaine recalled Dr. Rice's ability to defuse even the most tense meeting with angry parents. She described his office, where his desk was pushed up against the wall, so he hosted people in his office with a chair that was not blocked by any other object.
"There must have been something to that chair," Lalaine laughed, because, she said, even the angriest of parents would emerge from meetings with Dr. Rice with smiles on their faces.
Dr. Rice had a gift for praying for others. Jason Locke recalled that Dr. Rice's gifts did not lie in sharing short, concise speeches (he had a penchant for wordiness), but there was something about his prayers that just melted away anger and brought love and life into the lives of those he was praying for.
His son, David Rice, shared that his father, ever the good administrator, kept an orderly and organized home that leaves his children with a gracious gift: an orderly estate.
Doug Baker recalled Dr. Rice's attention to detail, keeping accurate inventory of school supplies, down to the last pat of butter in the kitchen. Doug made the confession that he and Brady Smith (the youth minister at the time) used to take popsicles from the school's kitchen freezer, just to mess with Dr. Rice's precise food inventory. Harlow Dawson admonished Doug that it is never too late to write a check to cover those missing popsicles!
Dr. Rice gifted me with his entire book series of "Through The Bible" with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I use the series often in preparing Bible lessons and I think fondly and thankfully of my friend, Al Rice, who undoubtedly already has an accurate inventory of the popsicles in heaven's freezer!
We will miss you, friend! We will join you again one day!
--Posted by Mama O.
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