RICE, HENRY CLARENCE (1874-1954)

RICE, HENRY CLARENCE, Methodist minister, Newcastle circuit, 1906-09; b. Lakefield, Ont., 31 Jan 1874, s/o Stephen Henry Rice and Mary Jane Pollard; brother of Jabez Melville Rice; m. 1903, Blanche B. Plummer, of Jacksonville, N.B.; d. Toronto, 28 May 1954.

One of three sons of the Rev. Stephen H. Rice to enter the ministry, Henry C. Rice was educated at Mount Allison University (BA 1900) and ordained at age twenty-six. He possessed "unusually fine gifts of intellect and character"; his sermons were "eloquent and heart searching"; and he was privileged to occupy, during his lengthy ministry, "some of the most prominent pulpits in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island." He was based at Sunny Brae, N.B., before he accepted appointment to Newcastle in 1906, and when he left three years later he went to Hartland.

Rice was the last president of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Methodist Conference, and on 1 September 1925 he presided over the first service of the Maritime Conference of the United Church of Canada. He was subsequently the minister of Queen Street United Church in Saint John until his retirement in 1937. Between 1926 and 1930 he sat on the board of regents of Mount Allison University. He was survived in 1954 by his wife, Blanche B. Plummer, and two daughters.