Primary Name: Rice, Dean Charles Edgar

Filed as: Rice, Dean Charles Edgar

Also known as: Charles Edgar Rice; Very Reverend Dean Rice; Father Rice

Occupation / Association: President, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo; Episcopal priest; Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral

Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Circle City, Alaska; Eagle, Alaska; Fort Yukon, Alaska; Fairbanks, Alaska; Skagway, Alaska; Seward, Alaska; Dubuque, Iowa; Nashotah, Wisconsin; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Keywords: Charles Edgar Rice, Dean Rice Juneau Alaska, Father Rice Alaska missionary, Holy Trinity Cathedral Juneau dean, dog team priest Alaska, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo president 1942, Circle City missions, Fairbanks first sermon tent saloon, Alaska Episcopal missions

Biography

Dean Charles Edgar Rice served as President of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo in 1942. He was the son of Jackson Rice and was born in Dubuque, Iowa on November 13, 1875.

Rice came to the Alaska Territory in 1902, immediately after his ordination to the priesthood, which followed his graduation from Nashotah College and Seminary in Wisconsin.

For the next fifteen years, he served as a missionary priest across Interior Alaska, traveling largely by dog team. His first churches were the missions of Circle City, Eagle, and Fort Yukon. His headquarters were at Circle, where the young minister also maintained a hospital serving the surrounding region. Not long after his arrival, Father Rice mushed by dog team to Fairbanks and preached the first sermon there in a tent saloon.

Father Rice returned to Wisconsin and married Helen Benedict at the chapel of his alma mater at Nashotah on August 30, 1906. Their wedding trip was the long journey back to Circle City. They had two sons: Jackson Benedict Rice, born June 15, 1907, in Fairbanks, and Robert Gordon Rice, born October 13, 1908, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Father Rice traveled widely across Alaska by dog team and riverboat, serving churches in communities such as Skagway and Seward. He served in Seward from 1910 to 1917 and spent several years outside the territory prior to 1920.

After returning to Juneau, he became Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral, where he was widely known as the Very Reverend Dean Rice.

A family anecdote recalls that a neighbor, Dr. Kaiser, once brought home an English Bull Terrier but gave it to the Rice family after discovering the dog was deaf. Named Patsy Ann, the dog became well known around town and eventually earned the nickname “the town dog” for greeting ships arriving in Juneau harbor.

Dean Rice served at Holy Trinity Cathedral until his retirement in 1944. After a year in Albany, Oregon, he returned to Southeast Alaska to supply nearby missions and again assist at Trinity before the arrival of Rev. Samuel A. McPheters.

Dean Charles Edgar Rice died in Juneau, Alaska on July 10, 1952.

Sources

Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers, 1850–1950, Volume 2, pp. 272–273, Ed Ferrell.