HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 339 Offered February 17, 2006 Celebrating the life of William Thomas Rice. ----------
Patrons-- Hall, Cox, Jones, D.C., McClellan, McEachin, Nixon, O'Bannon, Reid and Waddell
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WHEREAS, William Thomas Rice, a railroad executive whose work helped create two of the East Coast’s largest railroads, died February 5, 2006; and

WHEREAS, born in Hague, William T. Rice served in the cadet-corps and graduated from Virginia Tech on a scholarship from Jessie Ball DuPont, who funded scholarships for students from the Northern Neck area; and

WHEREAS, the scholarship only paid half his tuition and with no money coming from his family during the Depression, William T. Rice worked three jobs at times, and still graduated with the highest grade point average in his civil engineering class in 1934; and

WHEREAS, after graduation, William T. Rice accepted a job offer with the Pennsylvania Railroad at $155 a month so he could get married; and

WHEREAS, called to active duty in 1942, William T. Rice served his country in the United States Army during World War II and was assigned to help operate the Trans-Iranian Railway between the Persian Gulf and Tehran; and

WHEREAS, by the end of the war, William T. Rice was responsible for railroad operations in the area of Japan occupied by the 6th Army; for his notable service he was inducted into the United States Army Transportation Corps Hall of Fame and retired in 1969 as a major general in the Army Reserve; and

WHEREAS, during his long and exceptional career, William T. Rice worked his way up from mid-level track supervisor for the Pennsylvania Railroad, "where he learned railroads from the railbeds up," to president of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad; and

WHEREAS, William T. Rice brokered the merger of the Atlantic Coast Line with the Seaboard Air Line railroads, creating the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company in 1967; and

WHEREAS, while president of Seaboard Coast Line, William T. Rice served as chairman of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, was elected chairman of Seaboard and its parent Seaboard Coast Line Industries Inc. in 1970, and was chairman of The Family Lines for a few years; and

WHEREAS, William T. Rice was invaluable in negotiating the merger of the Chessie System and the Seaboard Coast Line that resulted in the CSX Corporation in 1980, creating the largest railroad in the eastern United States; he was named chairman emeritus for his many contributions to the new railroad system; and

WHEREAS, concerned with civic affairs and the well-being of his neighbors, William T. Rice was a five-term senior warden at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond and was a founder and first president of the Westminster-Canterbury Foundation; and

WHEREAS, William T. Rice was honored with numerous civic awards, including the National Defense Institute of America's Defense Transportation Man of the Year in 1972 and the National Association of Shippers Agents' Railroad Man of the Year in 1975; and

WHEREAS, William T. Rice will be remembered as one of the great railroad executives and industry leaders of the postwar period and will be missed by his family and his many friends and colleagues; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of an outstanding Virginian, William Thomas Rice; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of William Thomas Rice as an expression of the General Assembly's great respect for his memory.