A native of Huntsville, Alabama, James C. (Jim) Rice, Jr. was the long-time director of the Equal Opportunity Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Rice was born in 1932 and graduated from Oakwood College Academy in 1950 and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biology from Alabama A&M University in 1954.
Before coming to Marshall in 1966 to work in the Personnel Office, Rice worked as a high school teacher in Andalusia, Alabama from 1954 to 1958 while completing graduate coursework at Tuskegee Institute. From 1958 to 1966, Rice served as a sales consultant in private industry in Minnesota and New York.
During the Civil Rights Movement in Huntsville, Rice was a participating member of the city’s Human Relations Council and of the non-partisan Voters League. In 1968, he briefly stepped away from Marshall to serve as the deputy executive director of the Community Action Agency in Huntsville and a later temporary appointment as community relations specialist for the Department of Justice’s Division of Field Services, Southeast Region in Washington D.C.
Rice returned to Marshall in November 1972 to take a position as equal opportunity specialist in the Equal Opportunity Office. He served in that office until March 1987 when he became director of the office. Rice passed away on September 26, 1996.
Over his service at Marshall, Rice received numerous awards and recognitions including a 1989 award given at the NASA-Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU) Space Science and Engineering Research Forum for his commitment to the HBCU program.
Image credit: NASA