Former St. Charles Parish Superintendent Dr. Robert Rice, 69, passed away from complications associated with a lung transplant on June 21, but he won’t be forgotten by many in the parish. Especially when people recall how he helped calm racial tensions after the murder of Timothy Weber.
Especially when people recall how he helped calm racial tensions after the murder of Timothy Weber.
Weber was a white Destrehan High School student who was killed by Gary Tyler, who was black, in 1974. The incident caused widespread civil unrest throughout the parish.
Stanley Berard, the former assistant superintendent, who served under Rice during that time, remembers a man who dealt with a very tense and difficult situation at Destrehan with tact and compassion.
“It was a very turbulent time, especially at Destrehan with the death of the young Weber boy,” Berard said. “Dr. Rice decided that we had to close the school for a short period of time and reopen it after things were better.”
Destrehan was closed for about a week.
“It was a period in time we had to pass through,” he said. “Dr. Rice was instrumental in putting the school on the right track because he was a very compassionate person through all of the racial tension.”
Berard recalls how Rice comforted the staff during that difficult time in the school system, and how he brought in the Louisiana State Troopers, the FBI and the husband of former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who served as a mediator to help resolve the problem.
“School reopened a week later,” Berard said. “And he continued to try to bring everyone together.”
Rice’s wife, Susannah, remembers that difficult time and how her husband held everyone together throughout it.
“When we first arrived, several schools had been burned and there was a lot of racial unrest in the area,” Susannah said. “My husband had to be deputized and we were getting death threats on our lives.”
Susannah says the Ku Klux Klan was very visible in the parish at that time and so was a group similar to the Black Panther Party.
“Dr. Rice and I had no idea what to do,” she said. “Our children, who were in first and second grade at the time, were also getting threats.”
Susannah says that she and her husband began meeting with families in secret to solve the racial problems.
“We needed to hear from both sides,” she said. “The black families were afraid of repercussions so we met with them secretly and separately.”
Susannah says her husband didn’t just jump in and try to force change on anyone.
“He didn’t just come in and take over,” she said. “It was a slow and gradual process, but he followed the law. The law says the children should be educated together and that’s what he did.”
Berard says Rice also held beautification sessions where teachers would come out on the weekends to paint the school.
“It was something important to him to make sure everyone gave back to the community,” he said. “He also started the student of the year awards for St. Charles Parish and this was different because the students weren’t chosen based solely on academics.”
Rice also founded the St. Charles Parish Rotary Club, and served as its first president. He was also an avid fisherman.
“He caught a huge Marlin and it was in his office at work,” Berard said. “He loved to fish. I definitely remember him being a great fisherman.”
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