My Dad, Dwight Bert Rice, just passed away.  He has been in a coma for several days and been moved from the ICU to a nursing home.  He lived in Visalia, California.  He was 87 years old.  He will be missed.  I am so grateful for his great tutelage to me.  I have been such a blessed daughter to have him as my Dad.

We are serving in Mozambique, Africa on a mission that he wanted to go on in 1995.  Mom and Dad put their mission papers in to go to Zimbabwe.  Because of circumstances, the church could not send them there at that time.  But here I am  here where he wanted to be.

There are so many memories, very wonderful memories.  I will always remember him as the great science teacher.  His knowledge of geology, of animal science, of the natural sciences was amazing.  I could always count on him to have an answer to my many questions.  As we would go on our summertime excursions, he always knew why that mountain looked the way it did or why the clouds formed such a way or why the deer lived in the brush etc.  Milking the cow, feeding the calves, pigs, chickens, bees, etc. was such a blessing to me.  He was a great photographer as well and taught photographer as a part of his classes at the Junior High School he taught in Chandler, Arizona.

Another memory is his ability to follow the straight and narrow.  He held the banner high and expected other to do the same at home, at school, in scouts, etc.  His work ethic was commendable.  I have learned to love work and much of that learning is from him.

His testimony of the gospel was strong and firm but just budding.  He continually learned and applied the gospel in his life.  I want to be just like him.

Dad Paul Bunyan