Gerald Lawrence Rice

A resident of Baytown since 1953, Gerry was a long-time active member of several community organizations, including St. Joseph Catholic Church; the Knights of Columbus, for which he served as Treasurer for a number of years; the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Ethyl Management Club; and the Wood Workers Club of Houston. He was also proud to be a regular blood donor for many years.

Entering college in the fall of 1941, Gerry graduated in 1944 from Clarkson College of Technology, Potsdam, NY, with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. Upon graduation, he went to work for Tennessee Eastman Corporation at Oak Ridge, TN, for the duration of WWII, at the end of which he received a commendation from the War Department of the United States of America, Army Service Forces – Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District, thanking him for participating ""in work essential to the production of the Atomic Bomb, thereby contributing to the successful conclusion of WWII."" Gerry and several co-workers went on to work at Dow Chemical in Freeport, TX (until they all suddenly got fired a couple months later), and then at Ethyl Corporation in Baton Rouge, LA. It was in Baton Rouge where he met Elaine, and he knew very quickly that this woman was the one for him. They were married in January, 1951. In the following year, Gerry transferred from Baton Rouge to the new Ethyl Corporation plant in the Deer Park, Texas area, where he worked until he retired at age 66 in 1989. In 1978, Gerry, his long-time best friend and co-worker Henry L. Burkholder, and co-worker Karl O. Cooper, obtained a Canadian patent granted to Ethyl Corporation for ""Reduction of Dissolved Organic Lead in Aqueous Solutions,"" a feat of which Gerry was most proud: he loved telling the story of how he got the assignment to solve the problem which led to the patent.

Problem solving was one of Gerry's strengths. Growing up, Gerry helped out on his grandpa's farm: some of his duties included driving a horsedrawn hay rake wagon by the age of 13; feeding chickens, gathering eggs and plucking the chickens; sending the dog to bring the 25 cows to the barn for milking. He displayed his knack for problem solving early on-- when his father had trouble with their pheasant chicks pecking each other on the head, Gerry thought about it and realized that protein is what they wanted, so he got some ground meat, rolled it in with the chicken feed and the chicks ate it up and there were no more pecking problems!

From the excitement of crowding around the family radio, listening to FDR's Weekly Fireside Chat, to watching a nest of Bald Eagles on the Internet, Gerry remained connected throughout his life to the latest information and the newest technology. He loved reading – history books, biographies, American history, and the Scientific American. In 2013, one of his favorite books was The Girls of Atomic City, which tells the story of Oak Ridge in World War II. It brought back many memories. He was a member of the Franklin County Historical Society, and in recent years he delighted in learning the history of the areas surrounding his hometown of Malone by reading various publications by that Society.

Gerry was a very creative and artistic man, though he did not consider himself so. He had many varied interests and hobbies throughout his life, and he had a natural curiosity about how things worked. His mom said it was clear that Gerry would be an engineer. His dad had only to mention a problem with the family car to Gerry, and Gerry would fix it. In 1938 and 1939, Gerry and his father built two 16-foot fishing boats, also designing and building a trailer for the second boat that used valve springs from an old Ford to keep the boat from shaking to pieces as it was pulled to the fishing lake. In 1965 Gerry also built a very small wooden sailboat, which the family sailed on at the Highlands Reservoir. Other hobbies included a love of both birdwatching and photography; he built his own darkroom in the early 1980's, and won 2nd place for one of his photos at a Houston Arboretum photography show. He photographed many beautiful birds on various outings in south Texas and Louisiana with Elaine and his son, David. On one such memorable outing, he and Elaine canoed in the Atchafalaya River Basin, watching the birds and other wildlife there and taking photos. Gerry also loved woodworking with a passion, making many different kinds of items such as toys, trains, chairs, tables, stools, toddler rocking chairs, and even a few musical instruments.

Gerry loved telling stories about his life. One favorite, based on his time as a golf caddy at his local Malone golf club in the late 1930's, earning money during the Great Depression, was about the time he got to caddy for Babe Ruth in 1939 when the Babe was in town for the dedication of the new golf course in Malone. Gerry's childhood friend Billy Gibeau, a friend with whom he also built motorized model airplanes, was a fellow caddy. From helping his uncles and grandparents around the farm when he was a child; his work on various projects during his engineering career; how he figured out how to make his trains over the last few decades and the extensive travel he and Elaine did in their RV in the 1990s, exploring the great national parks of this country and loving every minute; and even the extremely large lemons that grow regularly on his lemon tree, Gerry remained a story-teller throughout his life, allowing his family a window into a rich, varied and extremely interesting life.

Gerry loved his family and extended family very much, and was much loved in return. After the loss in 2014 of his beloved wife, Elaine, whom he greatly missed, he took joy & comfort in meeting and interacting with his great-grandson, Ira. He was a generous, kind, hardworking man who will be dearly missed by all those who knew and loved him.

He was preceded in death by his parents; wife of 63 years, Elaine Schroeder Rice; brother, Donald Rice; sister, Mary Ann Rice Pearce; sons, Michael L. Rice and David K. Rice; and granddaughter, Cara Elaine Davis.

Survivors include his daughters Anne C. Rice of Houston and Elizabeth Rice Davis and her husband Ray K. Davis of Lafitte, Louisiana; daughter-in-law Carol S. Rice of Dayton, TX; grandchildren Rachel Davis and her husband Mark Bohenick; Art Davis; Dean Davis; Chris Smith and his wife Racquel, and Kenny Smith and his wife Krystal; great-grandchildren Ira Keith Bohenick, Ryan Smith, Kelsey Smith, Kalista Smith and Kloey Smith; niece Eva Pearce and nephew Jeffrey Pearce.

The family will receive friends from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 11, 2015 with a Rosary to be recited at 7:00 p.m. at Navarre Funeral Home. A Mass will be held at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, February 12, 2015 at St. Joseph Catholic Church with Father John Ulm officiating.

Pallbearers will be Dean Davis, Art Davis, Ray Davis, Kenny Smith, Ryan Smith and Johnny Hamby.

To view his online obituary, or post a tribute to his family, go to www.navarrefuneralhome.com.

Arrangements are under the direction of Navarre Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 2444 Rollingbrook Drive, Baytown, Texas 77521, (281) 422-8111.