Paul North Rice

Background

He was born in 1888 in Lowell, Massachusetts to Charles Francis Rice and Miriam Owen Jacobs. His father was a minister, and his grandfather William Rice had been a minister and librarian.

Education

He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1910, where he was a member of the Eclectic Society and Phi Beta Kappa. He then studied at the New York State Library School in Albany, New New York

Career

In 1935, he earned an honorary Master of Arts from Wesleyan. Rice was a reference assistant in the Ohio State University Library from 1911-1913. He worked as a reference assistant at the New York Public Library from 1914-1917 where he was treasurer of the New York Library Association from 1916-1917.

He served from Private to Second Lieutenant the United States Army, from 1917-1919.

He was then chief of the accessions division in 1920. He served as chief of the NYPL Preparation Division from 1920-1927.

He was president of the Dayton Public Library from 1927-1936, and President of the Ohio Library Association from 1930-1931. While in Dayton, he corresponded with West. East. B. Dubois about his magazine, The Crisis.

Rice served as Director of New York University Libraries from 1936-1938.

He was Director of the Reference Department of the New York Public Library from 1937-1953. During this time he was President of the New York Library Association from 1939-1940, Executive Secretary of the Association of Research Libraries from 1942-1946 and President of the American Library Association from 1947-1948. Rice supported the efforts of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. After retiring from New York, he served as director of the Wesleyan University Library from 1953-1956.

Following that tenure, he was librarian emeritus, and served as a trustee of the Russell Library in Middletown from 1954-1964.

He was the editor of the 9th edition of the Wesleyan University Alumni Record, 1961. Paul North Rice was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows: Paul North Rice, son of Charles Francis Rice (1851–1927), son of William Rice (1821–1897), son of William Rice (1788–1863), son of Nathan Rice (1760–1838), son of John Rice (1704–1771), son of Ephraim Rice (1665–1732), son of Thomas Rice (1625–1681), son of Edmund Rice (1594–1663).

Achievements

• Paul North Rice has been listed as a noteworthy librarian. by Marquis Who's Who.

Politics

In a speech as President of the American Library Association, Rice spoke of the role of libraries in a Cold War context: "our libraries are one force that assures that the United States can never succumb to fascism or any other kind of totalitarianism, we should do everything we can to influence United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to stimulate such libraries everywhere.".

Membership

Served from private to Second lieutenant, United States Army, 1917-1919. Executive secretary Association. Fellow American Library Institute.

Member American library association (first vice president 1946-1947, president 1947-1948), Ohio library association (president 1930-1931), New York library association (treasurer 1916-1917), vice president 1938-1939, president 1939-1940).

New York Library; Clubs: Rotary, Apostles.

Connections

Married Genevieve Briggs, July 17, 1924. Children: Rachel Briggs, Lenore Briggs, Horace (deceased), Charles Briggs.

Father:

Charles F. Rice

Mother:

Miriam Owen (Jacobs) Rice

Spouse:

Genevieve Briggs

child:

Horace Rice (deceased)

child:

Lenore Briggs Rice

child:

Charles Briggs Rice

child:

Rachel Briggs Rice