Norm Rice

Norman Blann Rice (born May 4, 1943) is an American politician who served as the 49th mayor of Seattle, Washington, serving two terms from 1990 to 1997. Rice was Seattle's first elected African-American mayor.

Early life and education Norman B. Rice was born on May 4, 1943, in Denver, Colorado, and was the youngest son of Irene Hazel Johnson and Otha Patrick Rice. He graduated from Manual High School in 1961 and then attended University of Colorado Boulder. He became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Before entering city government, Rice worked as a reporter at KOMO-TV News and KIXI radio. He was reelected in 1979, 1983, and 1987, serving eleven years in all.

Rice facilitated the development of more equitable cost allocation and rate design procedures for Seattle City Light as part of his work on the Energy Committee.

As chair of the Public Safety Committee, Rice worked to add 100 officers to the police force, secure funding for school safety officers, and sponsored the creation of neighborhood anti-crime teams.

Rice ran again in 1989 in a field of 13 candidates. He decided to run because of other candidates silence or support of an anti-busing iniative. In the September primary, Rice came in second with 20% of the vote and moved on to the general election with Seattle City Attorney Doug Jewett, who came in first with 24%. In the September primary, Rice came in first, with 57% of the vote, and advanced to the general election with busineness man David Stern, who earned 26% of the vote. In the November general election, Rice defeated Stern in a landslide, 119,695 votes to 63,461.

Tenure Due to his personality and demeanor, Rice was known as "Mayor Nice." In 1995, Rice served as a committee member for the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. He also served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Rice championed a project to revive downtown by purchasing a garage adjacent to Pacific Place mall. The purchase was made using a $24 million loan from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, the mayor's office was accused of misleading HUD about how the funds were being used, but HUD later found no "criminal violation." This complaint likely played a role in his failed bid to become HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton.

In 1996, Rice ran in the Democratic primary of the 1996 Washington gubernatorial election, but he was defeated by then-King County Executive Gary Locke.

Civic life

Rice was CEO and then president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle from 1998 to 2004.

In June 2009, Rice was named CEO of the non-profit Seattle Foundation, In December 2010, he was nominated as one of 30 members for a two-year appointment in the White House Council for Community Solutions, created by Executive Order of President Barack Obama.

In 2011, Rice was serving a three-year term as a Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and lead the project Civic Engagement in the 21st Century. He has one son and one grandson.

Honors and legacy Rice has been awarded honorary degrees by Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle University, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College.

Municipal League of King County’s James. R. Ellis Regional Leadership Award (with John Stanton) The American Jewish Federation’s Human Relations Award (with wife Constance Rice) National Neighborhood Coalition’s National Award for Leadership on Behalf of Neighborhoods King County Chapter of the YWCA’s Isabel Coleman Pierce Award Washington Council on Crime and Delinquency’s Mark F. Cooper Leadership Award American Association of Community College Students’ Outstanding Alumni Award