Daniel F. Rice (1896–1975) and his wife Ada L. Rice (1898–1977) were American business people,

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorse owners and breeders, and philanthropists. Dan Rice was educated in the public school system of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and spent two years at

Depaul University DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...

and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. In 1919, he founded his own

commodity broker A commodity broker is a firm or an individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of the clients and charges them a commission. A firm or individual who trades for his own account is called a trader. Commodity contra ...

age, Daniel F. Rice and Company. His company became successful over the 35 years that he ran it. The company merged with Hayden, Stone & Co. in 1959. Rice later ran Rice Grain Corporation. Dan Rice and his wife, Ada, contributed to many charities and organizations and created the Rice Foundation which is still running today. The Rice Foundation gives contributions to places that the Rices believed in such as programs to prevent child abuse and for many research areas such as plant development and preservation, medical advancement and animal conservation. Additionally, the Foundation supports the arts such as the Chicago History Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and other museums. Because the Rices were widely respected for their extensive philanthropies in the Chicago area, a number of places are named in their honor in the region. The combination of their first names formed Danada and appears in many places in

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

Thoroughbred racing

In 1929 the Rices bought a farm located south of Wheaton which became named Danada Farm. Their house was located across from the farm and later was named Danada House which now is a museum and a place for social functions. It can house about 150 people for a party. Mrs. Rice was known to throw lavish parties at the house. Danada House is a 19-room estate that contains

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s, a greenhouse, a swimming pool, porch and atrium. Danada Farms had corn, wheat, sheep, hogs, cattle, chickens, turkeys and an apple orchard. Over the years the farm grew to over . The couple loved

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

horse racing and built a Kentucky-style stable that could hold 26 horses. A half-mile training track, which included a 4-position electronic starting gate, was built across the street from the stables. Later, a tunnel was built under Naperville Road for the horses to safely get to the stables. The track, starting gate, and tunnel still exist today. In 1946, they acquired a part of the

Idle Hour Stock Farm Idle Hour Stock Farm was a 400-acre (1.6 km2) thoroughbred horse breeding and training farm near Lexington, Kentucky, United States established in 1906 by Colonel Edward R. Bradley. Beginning with the sire, Black Toney, and a roster of quali ...

near Lexington, Kentucky that was also given the Danada name. Mr. and Mrs. Rice bred horses on the farm, and raced them exclusively under her name. In 1965, one of their colts,

Lucky Debonair Lucky Debonair (May 2, 1962 – July 10, 1987) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1965 Kentucky Derby. Background He was bred by owners Dan and Ada Rice of Wheaton, Illinois at their Danada Farm satellite operation ...

, won the Kentucky Derby with

Willie Shoemaker William Lee Shoemaker (August 19, 1931 – October 12, 2003) was an American jockey. For 29 years he held the world record for total professional jockey victories. Early life Referred to as "Bill", "Willie," and "The Shoe", William Lee Sh ...

as jockey. Heavily involved in the sport of

thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

, Dan Rice was a member of the board of directors of

Arlington Park Racetrack Arlington International Racecourse (formerly Arlington Park, the name was Arlington Park Jockey Club from as soon as 1948 up to 1955) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago regio ...

. In addition to the sport of horse racing, in the latter part of the 1940s Dan Rice was a shareholder in the

Los Angeles Dons The Los Angeles Dons were an American football team in the newly formed football league the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949, and played their home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Dons were the first pr ...

of the newly formed All-America Football Conference.

Philanthropy

In 1947, Dan Rice set up the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation. In the next forty years, the foundation made $12.4 million in donations through 1,257 grants. As of 1988, the Rice Foundation had accumulated over $60 million. This money was donated to worthy causes such as endangered species, programs for abused children and medical research to support further advancement in areas such as rare illnesses and diseases. Dan and Ada Rice donated $10 million to the Art Institute of Chicago, $3 million to the

Shedd Aquarium Shedd Aquarium (formally the John G. Shedd Aquarium) is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Opened on May 30, 1930, the aquarium was for some time the largest indoor facility in the world. Today it holds about ...

, $2 million to the

Chicago History Museum Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the int ...

(formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society), and $100,000 to the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...

for a camping facility for handicapped Scouts. Additionally, the Rice Foundation contributed to the

Morton Arboretum The Morton Arboretum, in Lisle, Illinois, United States, is a public garden, and outdoor museum with a library, herbarium, and program in tree research including the Center for Tree Science. Its grounds, covering 1,700 acres (6.9 square kilometres ...

to support the growth and research of

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

trees and as a result a hybrid of an elm tree is named for them, the Danada Charm. Not only did the Rices donate money but they also donated land. They gave about for the

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

campus and to the Wheaton Park District for a

water park A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...

and

community center Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

Rice Foundation beneficiaries

The following places in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and h ...

have benefited from the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation: * The Chicago Botanic Gardens houses the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center. * The

exterior facade on Clark Street honors the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Pavilion. * The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Building is part of the Art Institute of Chicago. * The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Child and Family Center in Evanston is part of the Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois. * The

Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. It houses around 450 species of animals in an area of . It opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recogn ...

houses the Daniel F. and Ada L Rice Conservation and Biology Research Center, which contains a

molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a sub-field of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the ...

laboratory that conducts tests to analyze

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

and subspecies. * The Field Museum has the Dan F. and Ada L. Rice Gallery which houses changing themed exhibits. * The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago contains the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Patient Treatment Center. * The

has the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Pool, Amphitheater and Underwater Viewing Gallery. * The

Adler Planetarium The Adler Planetarium is a public museum in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1930 by local businessman Max Adler. Located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island on Lake Michigan in the city, th ...

had the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Solarium and cafeteria. * The Village of

Skokie, Illinois Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

partnered with the Rice Foundation to build the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in 1996 * In 1994, the foyer of the

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...

containing Austrian crystal chandeliers and elaborate stenciled ceilings was named the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Grand foyer. *

Benedictine University Benedictine University is a private Roman Catholic university in Lisle, Illinois. It was founded in 1887 as St. Procopius College by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey in the Pilsen community on the West Side of Chicago. The insti ...

has the Dan and Ada Rice Center used for all indoor athletic events. The Center contains a multi-purpose floor for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, swimming pool, weight training equipment,

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

courts, and the Trophy Room. The Trophy Room contains the honors and awards of Dan and Ada Rice including the victory racing plates worn by

, winner of the 1965 Kentucky Derby.

References

* Moore, Jean, and Hiawatha Bray. ''DuPage at 150 and Those Who Shaped Our World''. Chicago: West Chicago Printing Company, 1989.
Danada House website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Dan And Ada Married couples American sports businesspeople American racehorse owners and breeders Owners of Kentucky Derby winners Philanthropists from Illinois People from Wheaton, Illinois 20th-century American philanthropists