In 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression, an Episcopal minister recommended to Mrs. Alfred I. DuPont that she provide a college scholarship for W. Thomas Rice, a young man from rural Virginia. Proving the minister and Mrs. DuPont wise in their decision to help the aspiring student, Tom Rice graduated from Virginia Tech in 1934 with the highest academic average in his civil engineering class and was one of only two seniors in his class of 200 to be offered a job upon graduation.

That job was with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which he left to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. He served with distinction in the both the European and Asiatic theaters of the war and was awarded the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters.



After the war, Mr. Rice stayed in the Army Reserve, from which he later retired as a Major General, and he also returned to the railroad business, working for the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad. Within nine years he was elected President of the RF&P and two years later he became President of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company (ACL), which merged with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroads in 1967. Mr. Rice was elected Chairman and CEO of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company (SCL) of Richmond and its holding company, Seaboard Coast Line Industries, in 1970. He also became Chairman of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company.



In the midst of his formidable military and railroad careers, Mr. Rice was awarded honorary doctorates in military science from The Citadel and in laws from Stetson University.



After his retirement from the railroads in 1977, he was instrumental in the important merger of the SCL with the Chessie System, Inc., to form the CSX Corporation. In tribute to Mr. Rice's contributions to the railroad industry, CSX endowed the W. Thomas Rice Professorship in Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech, a position held by Dr. Donald R. Drew.



Mr. Rice has been a director on the boards of several industries including RF&P, Florida Rock Industries, Ambase Corporation, Tredegar Industries, and Chemical Bank of New York. An active civic leader, he has served as a trustee of the Virginia Episcopal Seminary and of the American Association of Homes for the Aging, which named him Trustee of the Year in 1991. He was a member of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Advisory Board of The Citadel, and Virginia Military Institute's Board of Visitors.



His extraordinary service to Virginia Tech includes 18 years on the Board of Visitors and a term as Rector. During the past decade he has endowed three scholarships for members of the Corps of Cadets who major in engineering. He has served as Director of the Virginia Tech Foundation, President of the Alumni Association, a charter member of the Rowe Fellow Program, and a member of the College of Engineering Committee of 100, Ut Prosim Society, Corps of Cadets Alumni Board, William Preston Society, and several other university organizations. In recognition of his contributions, Virginia Tech presented Mr. Rice with the Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1973, the Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award in 1980, and the William Ruffner Medal in 1981.



Mr. Rice and his wife of 63 years, Jacqueline, reside in Richmond and have a daughter and a son, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.