Norman Blann Rice (born May 4, 1943) is an American politician who served as the 49th mayor of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, serving two terms from 1990 to 1997. Rice was

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

's first elected

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

mayor.

Early life

Rice graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in communications and a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

from the university's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. He became a member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved in ...

fraternity. In 1975, he married Dr. Constance Williams. Before entering city government, Rice worked as a reporter at KOMO-TV News and KIXI radio. He served as Assistant Director of the Seattle

Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...

. He next worked as Executive Assistant and Director of Government Services for the Puget Sound

Council of Governments Councils of governments (CoGs—also known as regional councils, regional commissions, regional planning commissions, and planning districts) are regional governing and/or coordinating bodies that exist throughout the United States. CoGs are norma ...

Political life

Rice was first elected to the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-la ...

in 1978 to fill a vacancy. He was reelected in 1979, 1983 and 1987, serving eleven years in all. He served as chairs of the Energy, Finance, and Budget committees, and was Council President for one term. Rice facilitated the development of more equitable cost allocation and rate design procedures for

Seattle City Light Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, N ...

as part of his work on the Energy Committee. His accomplishments on the Finance and Budget Committee included the passage of the Women and Minority Business Enterprise Ordinance, and from 1982 to 1987, the elimination of City investments in firms doing business in apartheid-era

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. He ran for mayor in 1985, but lost to

Charles Royer Charles T. Royer (born August 22, 1939) is an American news reporter and politician who served as the 48th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1978 to 1990. After serving as mayor of Seattle, Royer became the director of the Harvard Institute of P ...

. Rice ran again in 1989 in a crowded field and won 99,699 to 75,446. He was re-elected in 1993. During the technology boom of the 1990s, Rice led the rejuvenation of Seattle's downtown. He also served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In 1995, Rice served as a committee member for the

Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...

. In 1996, Rice ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of Washington, but he was defeated by then-

King County King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...

Executive

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke se ...

. In 1997, Rice made a guest appearance as himself on an episode of ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...

'', entitled "The 1000th Show."

Civic life

Rice was CEO and then president of the

Federal Home Loan Bank The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks, or FHLBank System) are 11 U.S. government-sponsored banks that provide liquidity to the members of financial institutions to support housing finance and community investment. Overview The FHLBank System was ...

from 1998 to 2004. In June 2009, Rice was named CEO of the non-profit Seattle Foundation, serving in that post until December, 2013. In December 2010, he was nominated as one of 30 members for a two-year appointment in the

White House Council for Community Solutions The White House Council for Community Solutions was created by executive order of US President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States f ...

, created by Executive Order of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

. In 2011, Rice was serving a three-year term as a Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the

’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and lead the project Civic Engagement in the 21st Century.

Honors and legacy

Rice has been awarded honorary degrees by

Cornish College of the Arts Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of ...

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate pro ...

, the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound (UPS or Puget Sound) is a private university in Tacoma, Washington. The university draws approximately 2,600 students from 44 states and 16 countries. It offers 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 traditional ...

, and

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacific ...

. * 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

References

External links