Rice University

Background William Marsh Rice 's estate funded the establishment of the Rice Institute. Rice University's history began with the death of Massachusetts businessman William Marsh Rice, who had made his fortune in real estate, railroad development and cotton trading in Texas . In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death, earmarking most of his estate towards funding the project. Rice's will specified the institution was to be "a competitive institution of the highest grade" and that only white students would be permitted to attend. [ 19 ] On the morning of September 23, 1900, Rice, age 84, was found dead by his valet, Charles F. Jones, and was presumed to have died in his sleep. Shortly thereafter, a large check made out to Rice's New York City lawyer, signed by the late Rice, aroused the suspicion of a bank teller, due to the misspelling of the recipient's name. The lawyer, Albert T. Patrick , then claimed that Rice had changed his will to leave the bulk of his fortune to Patrick, rather than to the creation of Rice's educational institute. A subsequent investigation led by the District Attorney of New York resulted in the arrests of Patrick and of Rice's butler and valet Charles F. Jones, who had been persuaded to administer chloroform to Rice while he slept. Rice's friend and personal lawyer in Houston, Captain James A. Baker , aided in the discovery of what turned out to be a fake will with a forged signature. Jones was not prosecuted since he cooperated with the district attorney, and testified against Patrick. Patrick was found guilty of conspiring to steal Rice's fortune and he was convicted of murder in 1901 (he was pardoned in 1912 due to conflicting medical testimony).

[ 20 ] Baker helped Rice's estate direct the fortune, worth $4.6 million in 1904 [ 21 ] (equivalent to $ 125 million in 2024 ), towards the founding of what was to be called the Rice Institute, later to become Rice University. The board took control of the assets on April 29 of that year. In 1907, the Board of Trustees selected the head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Princeton University , Edgar Odell Lovett , to head the institute, which was still in the planning stages. He came recommended by Princeton's president, Woodrow Wilson . In 1908, Lovett accepted the challenge, and was formally inaugurated as the institute's first president on October 12, 1912. Lovett undertook extensive research before formalizing plans for the new Institute, including visits to 78 institutions of higher learning across the world on a long tour between 1908 and 1909. Lovett was impressed by such things as the aesthetic beauty of the uniformity of the architecture at the University of Pennsylvania , a theme which was adopted by the institute, as well as the residential college system at Cambridge University , which was added to the Institute several decades later. Lovett called for the establishment of a university "of the highest grade," "an institution of liberal and technical learning" devoted "quite as much to investigation as to instruction." [We must] "keep the standards up and the numbers down," declared Lovett. "The most distinguished teachers must take their part in undergraduate teaching, and their spirit should dominate it all." Rice University

An illustration of the Administration Building of Rice University in 1913 In 1911, the cornerstone was laid for the institute's first building, the Administration Building, now known as Lovett Hall in honor of the founding president. On September 23, 1912, the 12th anniversary of William Marsh Rice's murder, the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art began course work with 59 enrolled students, who were known as the "59 immortals," and about a dozen faculty. After 18 additional students joined later, Rice's initial class numbered 77, [ 22 ] 48 male and 29 female. Rice accepted coeducational admissions from its beginning, but on-campus housing would not become co-ed until 1957. [ 23 ] Administration Building, Rice Institute, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1912–1924) Per William Marsh Rice's will and Rice Institute's initial charter, the students paid no tuition. Classes were difficult, however, and about half of Rice's students had failed after the first 1912 term. [ 24 ] At its first commencement ceremony, held on June 12, 1916, Rice awarded 35 bachelor's degrees and one master's degree. [ 25 ] That year, the student body also voted to adopt the § Honor System , which still exists today. The first Ph.D. was awarded in 1918 in mathematics. In the 1920s, many of the university's early students were active supporters of the Ku Klux Klan , with a 1922 yearbook showing approximately twenty students wearing Klan robes in a posed photograph. [ 26 ] President David Leebron reacted to the re-circulation of these images in 2019 by stating that "It is unsurprising but nonetheless deeply disturbing that racist imagery, including students in blackface and KKK outfits, appeared at Rice with some frequency during the years prior to the admission of black students." [ 26 ] In 1923, a Ku Klux Klan event was held on a Rice-owned Louisiana Street location, near to the home of a Black woman who had filed a lawsuit against the institute in 1909.

[ 27 ] The Founder's Memorial Statue, a bronze statue of a seated William Marsh Rice, holding the original plans for the campus, was dedicated in 1930, and installed in the central academic quad, facing Lovett Hall. The statue was crafted by John Angel . [ 28 ] In 2020, Rice students petitioned the university to take down the statue due to the founder's history as a slave owner. [ 29 ] In January 2022, the Board of Trustees announced plans to relocate the statue within the academic quadrangle. [ 30 ] In November 2023, the statue along with its plinth were taken down in conjunction with a renovation of the Academic Quad, and eventually were relocated to a different location in the Quad. [ 31 ] During World War II , Rice Institute was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program , which offered students a path to a Navy commission. [ 32 ] The residential college system proposed by President Lovett was adopted in 1958, with the East Hall residence becoming Baker College , South Hall residence becoming Will Rice College , West Hall becoming Hanszen College , and the temporary Wiess Hall becoming Wiess College . John F. Kennedy speaking at Rice Stadium in 1962 In 1959, the Rice Institute Computer went online. 1960 saw Rice Institute formally renamed William Marsh Rice University. [ 33 ] Rice acted as a temporary intermediary in the transfer of land between Humble Oil and Refining Company and NASA , [ 34 ] for the creation of NASA 's Manned Spacecraft Center (now called Johnson Space Center ) in 1962. President John F. Kennedy then gave a speech [ 35 ] at Rice Stadium reiterating that the United States intended to reach the Moon before the end of the decade of the 1960s, and "to become the world's leading space-faring nation". The Rice Space Institute has collaborated with the Johnson Space Center for more than 50 years.