William Gorham Rice 1892-1979
![handle is hein.journals/wlr1980 and id is 33 raw text is: IN MEMORIAM
WILLIAM GORHAM RICE
1892-1979
The editors and staff of the Wisconsin Law Review dedicate
this issue to the memory of Professor William Gorham Rice. Profes-
sor Rice died last April in Madison at the age of 86. The Review's
tribute on these pages bnly begins to suggest the richness and diver-
sity of his life and career.
Professor Rice was born in Albany, New York' and educated at
Harvard.' He came to the University of Wisconsin as an assistant
professor of law after serving as law clerk, in 1921, to United States
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. Over the years he taught
labor law, contracts, international law, and constitutional law. Pro-
fessor Rice remained on the faculty for forty-one years until his
retirement in 1963 at the age of 70.1 He was deeply respected as a
teacher, probably because of his belief that the essence of good
teaching was, rather than the delivery of truth from the lectern, the
provoking of ideas by an exchange of views between instructor and
students.'
University classrooms, however, never circumscribed the scope
of his activities. Throughout his tenure at the Law School-and
after-Professor Rice engaged, with remarkable energy, in the var-
ied pursuits of labor activities, governmental service, international
law, civil liberties, university and community affairs, and politics.
In 1932 Professor Rice was elected vice-president of Local 223
of the A merican Federation of Teachers; subsequently he became its
first president and delegate to the Madison Federation of Labor.5 He
was a founder and early chairman of the University Faculty Credit
Union! and chairman of the University Committee.' In 1935, shortly
after completing a brief term as general counsel to the National
Labor Relations Board, he was appointed by Secretary of Labor
Frances Perkins to represent the United States at the headquarters
of the International Labor Organization in Geneva.8 Subsequently
1. December 30, 1892.
2. A.B. 1914, A.M. 1915, LL.B. 1920, S.J.D. 1921.
3. See UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES ORAL'HISTORY PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, WILLIAM
GORHAM RICE, JR., AN INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DONNA S. TAYLOR 2 (1974) [hereinafter cited
as UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT]; 1963 WIS. L. REv. 512.
4. UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJEcT, supra note 3, at 39.
5. Id. at 27.
6. Id. at 28.
7. Id. at 26.
8. Id. at 5.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wlr1980&div=13&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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William Gorham Rice 1892-1979
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