Educator, activist John Rice dies

John A. Rice of East Northport was, at various times in his life, a Franciscan brother, a math teacher, an avid baseball player, a gardener, the owner of a computer store, a legislative aide, a Conservative Party activist, a world traveler and -- his wife said -- a heck of a baker.

"He was always interested in things, and things would take him in different directions," Lorraine Rice said Tuesday as she remembered her husband, who died Monday night at age 71.

Suffolk County Conservative Party chairman Edward Walsh remembered Rice, known as Jack, as a go-to guy when work needed to be done.

"He was big in the party, always fighting the good fight," Walsh said. "His passion was politics. He was the guy who you looked for when you wanted someone to work the phones, someone to go door to door. He couldn't do enough to help."

Rice had been limited by health concerns for the past three years, his wife said, so she had been doing the driving and he still did the door to door, mostly for local races.

Rice was born in New York City, attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn, got his bachelor's degree in math from Manhattan College in the Bronx and became a Franciscan brother, teaching math at St. Francis Prep in Queens.

After leaving the Franciscans in 1971, he became a math teacher at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip.

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He also coached track and field at St. Dominic's High School in Oyster Bay, was a big New York Yankees fan and played in a men's senior baseball league, the Marlins, which later became The Buzz.

Lorraine Rice said she attended high school with Rice's sister, and she linked up with him again in 1972; they married in 1973.

They have one child, Megan, who lives in Boston.

Rice opened a computer store in Mattituck in 1981, when home computers were becoming popular, and he ran that until 1985. He then went to work as an aide to Suffolk County Legis. Michael O'Donohoe, became an aide to Presiding Officer Donald Blydenburgh in the 1990s and later worked for Suffolk County Executive Robert Gaffney as chief management analyst.

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More recently he had been a management analyst at Suffolk County Community College until he retired in 2005.

He and his wife traveled the world, until his medical problems restricted them, but he still hosted an annual St. Patrick's Day gathering at their home, tended his vegetable garden and baked.

"He liked to cook. He loved to eat," Lorraine Rice said. "But he was a really good baker -- pies, scones, cookies."

There will be a wake Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Nolan & Taylor-Howe Funeral Home at 5 Laurel Ave. in Northport.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, 20 Cheshire Place in East Northport, followed by cremation.