The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-03-04

The neighbor chosen for today's program is Lieutenant- Colonel Roy Emmett Rice, assistant sup erintendent of the South Mill of the Scovill Manufacturing com pany. He is one of Waterbury's most outstanding citizens and has been mentioned as mayoralty timber on several occasions.
 Roy Emmett Rice was born at West Plains, a little town nestled in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, in Missouri, on Sept. 10th, 1893. He is the son of David William, and Mary Elizabeth (Davidson) Rice. His parents were natives of Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. His father is now a resident of West Plains. His mother, who was of Scotch de- scent, died at West Plains, two years ago. Roy has three broth- CTS and two sisters. They are Ed- ward Allen Rice, now chief of po- lice in Blythsville,N Arkansas; Richard Bland Rice, sales engi- neer in Chicago; David William Rice, auditor for the General Mills in Chicago; Mrs. Elizabeth Park of Springfield, Missouri, and Mrs. Helen Toelstead of Chicago.
 Roy received his early education in the grammar and high schools of his birthplace. He was an am- bilious lad and earned a little change as 8 strawberry picker and later 50 cents 8 day riding a mule on 8 hay baling machine. Despite his early ambition to be- come a doctor and surgeon he in 1913 enrolled at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. At the end of two years he began mechanical engineers course in Louisiana State university at was interrupted in March, 1917. Baton Rouge. His course of study when he volunteered for military service at Baton Rouge. He was accepted and was sent to the first officers training camp at Fort Logan H. Root, at Little Rock, Arkansas. MT. Rice had en- listed in the National Guard at West Plains when he was IS and by virtue of his good work during the flood of 1912 had been com missioned second lieutenant of the 9th National Guard Infantry of Missouri when he was IS. He resigned, however, to enter col- lege. This military training in- directly led to his being commis- stoned a captain of infantry at Fort Root on August 18th, 1917. q might point out at this time that Wayne Boles, the man who succeeded MT. Rice as second lieutenant of the National Guards at West Plains, was the first sol- dier from his town to pay the su- preme sacrifice in France. A post of the American Legion has been named in honor of his memory. Twelve-hundred patriotic men of the little town of West Plains 5000 population volunteered to serve hteir country in the World war. Many of them never came back.)
 Although he was only g years old, Capt. Rice was third ranking officer at Fort Root Colonel Robert Lee Bullard commanded the camp and later became lieu tenant general of the American Expeditionary Forces. Capt. Rice was sent to Camp Pike at Little Rock, Arkansas, where he com manded the First 185 draftees. He was later placed in command of a machine gun company of the 345th Infantry of the 87th divi- sion. In a short time he was sent to Camp Dix in New Jersey and then on to France by way of England and across the channel. Overseas he was in command of the First Battalion, 345th In- fantry. Two months after the armistice was signed, or in Jan uary, 1919, Capt. Rice returned to America; successfully passed an examination for a captaincy in the regular standing army and was assigned to the general staff as physical director and boxing instructor at Camp Merritt. New Jersey. Among his assistant in- structors were: Ted (Kid) Lewis. then the worlds welterweight champion; Benny Leonard, who later became worlds lightweight champion: Al Reich, Capt. Bob Roper, 6ergt. Ray Smith, and other noted members of the box ing fraternity.
 Mir. Rice resigned as captain of the regular army, Aug. 18th, 1919, to accept a position as sales en- gineer in Chicago. His employers later sent him to N0blesville, The diana. to supervise the erection of q branch factory which Mr.. Rice subsequently, managed for three years. Tn January. i024. he came to Waterbury to work in Sc0vill's.
 MF. Rice had accepted conn mission as captain in the ftes serve Corps of the United States army before he left Chicago, and soon after his arrival here vas promoted t0 the rank 0f major. In i01i lie Wns commissioned a .Mssaa.m4 Nr.annMMn.na Maase.n m