Ole S. Rice, Wisconsin State Library Clerk and Supervisor of School Libraries from 1907 to 1923, was born in 1863 in Opdal, Norway. He was brought to the United States at an early age by his parents, who settled in northeastern Iowa. Rice attended a country school and later taught in schools in his neighborhood before attending Northern Indiana Normal School from 1886 to 1889. After graduation he taught for several years at the Stoughton Academy (Stoughton, Wis.), and also secured a Wisconsin Unlimited State Teacher's Certificate by examination. Upon earning his B.S. in geology from the University of Wisconsin in 1899, he was appointed principal of Deerfield, Wisconsin, High School, where his wife Hildor also taught for several years. In December, 1907, Rice was appointed Library Clerk by State Superintendent of Schools C.P. Cary. By 1915 Rice had been promoted to the position of State Supervisor of School Libraries. In this capacity Rice authored several publications concerning the use of libraries, as well as booklets for use in libraries of various types. He also compiled a number of issues of the Wisconsin Memorial Day Annual and Arbor and Bird Day Manual, which were issued by the Department of Public Instruction. Rice was also the author of several books, including Lessons on the Use of the School Library and Lessons on the Use of Books and Libraries, and he edited The Adventures of Raphael Pumpelly.
Rice's professional activities included membership in the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association, the National Association of Library Supervisors, and the Library Department of the National Educational Association, of which he was president for the years 1919 and 1920. He was a frequent and active participant in conferences held by these organizations.
In addition to his professional activities, Rice was active in the community as a member of the Mozart Club, a choir based in Madison; as a founding member of the Mutual Benefit Anti-Tuberculosis Fraternity; and as a participant in the activities of Madison's Norwegian community. He and his wife, who succumbed to tuberculosis in 1911, had one daughter, Ruth. Rice died on January 25, 1923.
