Gordon W. Rice

Gordon W. Rice was a native Nevadan, born at Sparks on the family ranch in the Truckee Meadows, where his forebears had homesteaded in the early 1850s and where his family operated a dairy and raised onions and potatoes. He received his grammar and high school education in Sparks and went on to enroll at the University of Nevada. In 1932 he chose law as his profession, taking up his studies in Reno law offices, and in 1935 he was duly admitted to the practice of law after passing the state bar examinations.

Early in his career he joined forces with Alan Bible, later Attorney General of Nevada and a United States Senator, and with Pat McCarran, and this Reno firm continued in practice for some five years. He then practiced on his own from 1940 to 1942 and was later a partner in the firm of Rice and Streeter. During World War II he enlisted in the infantry in 1942, trained at major camps across the United States, and in 1944 was sent overseas, where he served as an assistant to the Judge Advocate on General Eisenhower's legal staff. He retired from the Army in 1945 with the rank of Captain and resumed his law practice in Reno.

Gordon W. Rice served as a Judge of the Second Judicial District Court in Washoe County from 1955 to 1958. He was a member of the Nevada State Bar, the Washoe County Bar Association, the Lawyers' Club, and the American Bar Association. Beyond the law he was active in his community as a 32nd degree Mason, a Shriner, and a member of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.