Rice, William Bothwell

William Bothwell Rice was born in Montreal, Quebec, on June 10, 1918. He married Hilda Tait, and they had three children.
William B. Rice began his teaching career at Queen's University in 1950 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was promoted to Professor in 1962, and from 1973 to 1978 served as Head of the department. Prior to his tenure at Queen's University, Dr. Rice was an Assistant Professor at McGill University and consulted as a design engineer in private industry.
Dr. Rice graduated from McGill University in 1944 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 1950 he was granted a Bachelor of Science degree from Sir George Williams (now Concordia University), and in 1959 received his Doctor of Applied Science degree from Ecole Polytechnique L'Université de Montreal. Between degrees, and before his appointment to Queen's in 1950, Dr. Rice worked with the Northern Electrical Company, and with the DuPont Company of Canada through the summers of the 1950s.
During his undergraduate career Dr. Rice was a member of the McGill University Air Training Corps. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1944 at the rank of Lieutenant on completion of his undergraduate studies, and was on active service until 1945. Dr. Rice joined the Queen's University squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1957 as a flight-lieutenant and training officer, and became Wing Commander of the squadron in 1960.
An engineer with industrial experience in manufacturing, Dr. Rice was a pioneer in manufacturing research at Canadian universities. His contribution to this field was recognized in 1966 when he was elected the first Canadian member of the International Institute for Production Engineering Research. He is the author of a number of technical papers, he has been chairman of the Production Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and was co-founder of the North American Manufacturing Research Conference. In 1980 Dr. Rice was elected President of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineers (CSME) which he helped found, in 1981 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and in 1985 he was awarded the Engineer's Medal for Research and Development by the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (APEO). For a quarter-century Dr. Rice's research was funded by the Defense Research Board an the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, for which he twice served as Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Grant Selection Committee. He is a Fellow of both the SME and the ASME. A Registered Professional Engineer, Dr. Rice served on several Canadian Accreditation Board teams, and has been chairman of the Engineering Graduate School at Queen's.
Dr. Rice retired from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in but maintains his ties with Queen's University as Professor Emeritus.