Dr. Jack Overton Rice of Philadelphia, Pa. died at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital on Oct. 14 as a result of complications from a stroke.
He was born Sept. 5, 1929 to Harold and Martha (Barrett) Rice of Hickman, Ky. He was married to Joan (Pelot) Rice on August 7, 1954, and she continues to reside in Philadelphia.
He is survived by his three children and their families: Adam Rice of Raleigh, N.C.; Elizabeth (Rice) Basinet of San Diego, Calif., her husband, Richard, and two children, Nicholas and Lauren; and Alexander Rice of Philadelphia, his wife, Pamela (Moy) Rice, and their two children, Jack and Penelope. Additional survivors include his sister in law, Martha “Swanee” (Shaw) Rice of Hickman, Ky., her sons, Harold Rice of Union City, Tenn., and Daniel Rice of Hickman, Ky., and their families.
Jack’s parents and brother Harold Rice of Hickman, Ky., preceded him in death.
Jack attended Hickman High School, Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Sciences, and Vanderbilt School of Medicine (class of 1955). Following an internship in internal medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. from 1955 to 1956, Jack served as a captain at Ireland Army Hospital in Fort Knox, Ky. from 1956 to 1958. During his time in the Army, Jack specialized in psychiatry. In 1959, he began residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont, followed by a year of residency at Vanderbilt.
He and Joan returned to Boston for the final three years of his residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and stayed on in the Boston area for the next 20 years, raising their family in Cambridge, Newton and then Concord. Jack worked at MGH, where he was a clinical instructor in psychiatry while supervising Harvard University psychiatric residents. Jack would go on to graduate from the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, specializing in both child and adult psychiatry.
Jack and Joan raised their family in Concord, and they were active in the community, from the local school board to politics. Jack never missed a performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and took his children to Fenway Park, where he passed on a love of baseball that continues with his grandchildren. He purchased property on the Vineyard in 1974, and the family vacationed there throughout the year for more than a decade, often rising early to catch the ferry for a weekend visit.
In 1981 the family moved to Knoxville, Tenn. to be close to Joan’s parents, Josephine (Jo) and Reuben Pelot, brother Dr. Reuben Nisbet Pelot, sister in law Barbara (Bondurant) Pelot, and their children, Lisa, Laurie, Linda and Reuben (Buddy). In 1983 the family moved to Nashville, where Jack spent the next two decades working with Psychiatric Consultants while also serving as consultant to Vanderbilt psychiatric residents. Joan’s sister Patricia (Pelot) Sanders and husband Dr. Robert Sanders lived close by in Murfreesboro, Tenn. with their children, Robert and Priscilla.
In retirement, Jack and Joan moved to Philadelphia in 2005 to live near son Alexander’s family, enjoying the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and supporting his son and grandson’s baseball team, the Taney Dragons, during their run to the 2014 Little League World Series. Jack and Joan would make frequent trips to visit their daughter’s family in San Diego, and their eldest son in Raleigh, N.C.
Jack’s passions included growing roses, classical music, attending the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, and spending time with family on the Vineyard. After retirement, he longed to return to the Island and have family vacations there again, so he purchased a unit in Vineyard Square in Edgartown, where the family will continue to enjoy get-togethers.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, philorch.org/make-gift#/.
Jack’s life will be celebrated at a private service for family and friends at a future date.
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