Harold D. Rice

Harold D. Rice (died 2014) was a longtime Hallmark Cards executive who, with his wife Peggy, founded the City of Fountains Foundation in 1973 — the organization that institutionalized Kansas City’s identity as the “City of Fountains.” Inspired by the fountains of Rome and alarmed by the disrepair of Kansas City’s own, Rice built the nonprofit that has restored, endowed, and championed the city’s public fountains for more than half a century.

[!info] Cornerstone-adjacent entry This page was created out of the deep-dive on Kansas City’s “City of Fountains” identity. Claims are sourced to named references with links; facts that could not be verified (notably Rice’s birth year) are flagged rather than guessed.

Biography

Hallmark career

Harold D. Rice joined Hallmark Cards in 1941 as a lithograph retouch artist and rose over four decades to Group Vice President and a member of the board of directors, retiring in 1985. He was known within the company for advocating breakthrough graphic-arts techniques, and Hallmark later named its technical Rice Innovation Center in his honor.¹²

Founding the City of Fountains Foundation (1973)

Rice and his wife Margaret Josephine “Peggy” (McDermott) Rice — whom he married in March 1943 — returned from a trip to Rome impressed by that city’s fountains (the Trevi Fountain is cited as an inspiration), and concluded that Kansas City should claim the mantle of the American “City of Fountains.” Peggy is credited with having the original concept for the foundation.³¹

The City of Fountains Foundation held its first board meeting at 10 a.m. on June 27, 1973, in the downtown Bryant Building office of board member Eugene C. Hall.³ Its charter board joined Rice with a cross-section of Kansas City institutions:

• John W. Lottes — president of the Kansas City Art Institute
• Jeannette Lee — head of Hallmark’s art department and a Hallmark board member
• Robert J. Wharton — trust department, First National Bank
• Eugene C. Hall — attorney and former Hallmark in-house counsel (1958–1970)³

The Kansas City Council formally endorsed the foundation’s mission the following year, in 1974.² The organization set out to raise funds to build new fountains, to manage trust and endowment funds for their maintenance, and to raise public awareness of the city’s fountains — work it continues today, holding endowments for roughly 30 fountains, monuments, and sculptures.³

Later years and death

Peggy Rice died in 2000; Harold Rice died in 2014.¹ His birth year could not be verified in available sources and is left “ rather than estimated.

Cultural legacy

Rice turned a civic slogan into a durable institution. Because of the foundation he built, Kansas City’s fountains have an ongoing maintenance and endowment mechanism — the reason the “City of Fountains” claim rests on working fountains rather than neglected ones. Rice received a dedication plaque in 1991 for his contributions to the city’s parks and fountains, and the Harold D. Rice Fountain, at The Paseo and East 72nd Street, commemorates him.²

Contemporaries + collaborators

• Peggy Rice — his wife and co-founder, credited with the foundation’s original concept
• John W. Lottes, Jeannette Lee, Robert J. Wharton, Eugene C. Hall — City of Fountains Foundation charter board

Sources

Footnotes

1. “A Toast to Olde Tymes: Harold D. Rice” — The Independent (Kansas City). https://kcindependent.com/toast-to-olde-tymes-harold-d-rice/ — Confirms: Hallmark career (joined 1941, retired 1985 as Group VP and board member); Rice Innovation Center; Peggy’s “original concept”; marriage March 1943; Peggy died 2000, Harold died 2014. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. KC Fountain Tours — “Harold D. Rice: One New Fountain a Year.” https://www.kcfountaintours.com/harold-d-rice-one-new-fountain-a-year/ — Confirms: the 1974 City Council endorsement; the 1991 dedication plaque; the Harold D. Rice Fountain at The Paseo and East 72nd Street. (Headline “one new fountain a year” is the site’s paraphrase, not a verified direct quote.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. City of Fountains Foundation — “Our History.” https://cityoffountains.org/our-history/ — Confirms: 1973 founding by Harold Rice (Hallmark executive) inspired by a Rome trip; first board meeting 10 a.m. June 27, 1973, Bryant Building; charter board (Lottes, Lee, Wharton, Hall); mission and ~30 fountain/monument endowments. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴