Laban Lacy Rice

Who was Laban Lacy Rice?

Laban Lacy Rice was an educator, author, and President of Cumberland University.

He was born in Dixon, Kentucky to Laban Marchbanks Rice, a Confederate veteran and prominent tobacco merchant, and his wife Martha Lacy. He was an older brother of the poet Cale Young Rice. Lacy Rice grew up with his family in Evansville, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky.

He received his A.B., M.A., and PhD degrees from Cumberland University. While a student at Cumberland, he was one of five men to found the Theta Chapter of Kappa Sigma Fraternity on October 7, 1887. He served as Professor of English at Cumberland University, as Headmaster at Castle Heights Military Academy, and as associate editor of the Cumberland Presbyterian prior to being elected as President of Cumberland University. He also founded a private girls' camp called Camp Nakanawa and was an amateur astronomer. The Rice Observatory on the Cumberland University campus is named after him.

Rice married Blanche Alexander Buchanan in Lebanon, Tennessee and was the father of two daughters, Katherine and Anne. After his retirement, he made his home in Warwick, Virginia. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1973 at the age of 102 and was buried at the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee.