William Marsh Rice - Houston, TX - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Rice was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 14, 1816. He was the third of ten children born to David and Patty Rice. In 1838, Rice traveled to Texas in search of new business opportunities.

Rice made his fortune by investing in land, real estate, lumber, railroads, cotton, and other prospects in Texas and Louisiana. In 1860, his total property, which included fifteen slaves, was worth $750,000.

In 1893, Rice made a new will. The value of Rice's estate at the time was estimated at about $4 million. The new will instructed the executors to divide his property into two equal parts, one to be bequeathed to the Rice Institute, the other to be divided into shares and distributed to his wife Elizabeth Baldwin Rice and other legatees.

Rice left the bulk of his estate to the founding of a free institute of higher education in Houston, Texas. Opening in 1912 as William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art, it is known today as Rice University. In his will, Rice mandated that the university to bear his name would be for "whites only." This request was eventually overruled, and Raymond L. Johnson — Rice University's first black student — was admitted in 1964."

Smithsonian Art Inventory

"He is seated in a chair. He holds a scroll in his proper left hand with his proper left arm hanging straight down. He holds a large book in his proper right hand; his proper right arm rests on the arm of the chair. He wears a heavy cloak. On the back of the chair is the Crest of the University. The bronze sculpture stands on a granite base. On the front of the base is a bas-relief shield of the university; on the right side is a bas-relief Shield of the State of Massachusetts; and on the left side is a bas-relief Shield of the State of Texas. On the back of the base is a bas-relief Seal of the United States."