Many retired and active aircraft maintenance professionals received their training for certification at schools established and operated by Jim and Alice Rice. As an aircraft in flight leaves a contrail marking its successful movements, the Rice’s contrail is the large number of mechanics trained over 40 years at Rice Aviation training schools and the Northrop Rice Advanced Institute of Technology.
Rice became enamored with airplanes as many of us did, watching planes takeoff and land with our dads. Rice in Chicago “as a four-year-old sitting on the soft-top of a Ford Model A watching Electra’s come and go”. After high school, he went to work in 1950 for Braniff Air Lines in Kansas City. He initially “pushed the baggage cart”, but later was an Assistant Flight Dispatcher.
In the 50’s, Braniff flight reservation and standby requests, at a downline station like Kansas City, were handwritten on 3” by 5” cards managed by the Kansas City Reservation Department Flight Control Desk. If a call came from upline that there had been one or more “no-shows” for a flight coming to Kansas City, the individual managing the Flight Control Desk would select those on standby for the flight and notify them to be ready for boarding. One night, an error was made and one too many passengers were notified they were confirmed on a flight. Rice had to notify one of the standby passengers that he could not board. There was a nasty response from the passenger, and a threat to see that Rice was fired. After the flight departed, Rice called Reservations and asked “who is the dumb broad [on the Flight Control Deck] that can’t count to 52 on a DC-6”? It was a young lady named Alice Boeding, who luckily had gone home for the night. He later met Alice at a party, told her that she should learn how to count, then married her! Together they raised six children, and Alice walked side-by-side with him all their married life as the two built the largest system of aircraft maintenance training schools in the U.S. Alice, who also took on significant roles promoting and supporting women in aviation maintenance, died in 2016 ... she is remembered and is missed by many.
After five years with Braniff, Jim had several other aviation jobs before joining the Burbank, CA Lockheed ‘Skunk Works’ in 1962. He was transferred in 1967 to Houston supporting the Manned Spacecraft Program with the promise that the Rice’s would be back in Burbank after the 1969 moon-landing success. But Lockheed was experiencing financial troubles associated with the RB211 engines for their already manufactured 1011 airplanes, which at the time included “16 giant gliders” parked waiting for engines. So, in 1971, the Rice’s decided that Jim would leave Lockheed and that they would stay in Houston and open an aircraft maintenance school … even though neither had any aircraft maintenance experience. Jim comments that a key point in their decision to stay in Houston was that “Alice preferred the brick homes in Houston to the stucco homes in California.”
The Rice's established Rice Aviation and began operations in a rented hanger at the Clear Lake TX STOLport. The FAA required that Rice Aviation move to a major aircraft operation area in order to become a 14 CFR Part 147 certificated Aviation Maintenance Technician School … so operations were moved to the Hobby Airport area. In 1973, the Rice’s met the Chancellor of the developing Houston Community College, which was just starting operations as was the Community College system throughout the U.S. Having been a B-24 pilot, the Chancellor was interested in the Rice Aviation maintenance training programs. Soon Rice Aviation began a contract relationship providing the FAA-curriculum to students at Houston Community College … a relationship that lasted 27 years. Rice Aviation expanded their support of Houston Community College in 1986 by opening training courses in Lubbock TX at the Reese Air Force Base, and in 1990 at the College’s North Houston Campus. The Houston Community College Part 147 program was the largest FAA-certificated program in the United States, allowing for 800 students, 400 daytime students and 400 evening students.
Ten years prior to Rice Aviation’s contract relationship with Houston Community College, four private schools (Embry-Riddle, Northrop Institute, Purdue University, and Spartan College) met at Purdue and formed the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) to interface with the government. Today, community colleges make up about two-thirds of ATEC school members, but when Rice Aviation was formed, ATEC was small in comparison to today because the nation’s community college system was just coming online.
Rice Aviation’s growth was not only in Texas. During the last 70’s and 80’s, five additional Rice Aviation schools were begun and operated … three additional community college contracted efforts in Ft. Lauderdale FL, Richmond VA, and Chesapeake VA, two Rice Aviation owned schools in Baltimore MD and Phoenix AZ, and a small avionics school in Michigan.
Piedmont Airlines needed to vacate a Raleigh NC maintenance hanger in 1984 leading to Rice Aviation’s acquisition of equipment and materials that were distributed among the east coast schools. But additional learning aids were needed, so Rice Aviation went into the design and manufacture of items like safety-wire trainers. With its design-build team, Rice Aviation developed 16 such devices used by its schools and sold to other FAA-certificated schools.
In the late 80s, Jim and Joe Miles were both members of the Aviation Technician Education Council Board of Directors. Joe was the Director of Northrop Institute of Technology in Inglewood CA … initially founded by John K. Northrop, founder of Northrop Aircraft Company, and aviation educator James L. McKinley in 1942 as Northrop Aeronautical Institute. In 1990, Joe Miles commented to Jim that the institute would not survive … and Jim expressed an interest in purchasing the institute and keeping the Northrop name alive in education and aviation. Agreements were reached and, in 1991, Rice Aviation acquired the institute and named its new joined operation the Northrop Rice Aviation Institute of Technology (Northrop Rice). With the inclusion of the Northrop Rice campus in its portfolio of schools, Rice Aviation—newly renamed Northrop Rice USA Inc. —became the largest system of aircraft maintenance schools in the United States. The Inglewood CA and Houston TX A&P programs were sold to Alta Colleges in 1999, then renamed Westwood College of Aviation Technology that, in 2006, became Redstone College. Ownership of the Inglewood CA campus and program was purchased from Redstone College in 2008, and today is the Inglewood campus of Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology.
Northrop Rice USA went international in 1996 when it received a contract to set-up and establish a 250-student school in Jasin, Malaysia. Subsequently, additional contracts were established: in 1999 requiring delivery of curriculum, equipment, instructor training and technical support for the four-year 1250-student Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (MIAT), and in 2001 establishing and operating online e-learning for MIAT. All of the products were handed over to the school in 2004. As a result of his association with Malaysian Muslim people, and based upon his Christian beliefs, Jim authored a book published by Vintage Press titled War and Religion: A Handbook for Everyman which examines the causes of the unrest between the world’s religions, and how, perhaps, the differences might be smoothed over.
Today Northrop Rice USA, operated by some of Jim and Alice’s children, continues to provide custom tailored aviation maintenance training in its facility at Ellington Field south of Houston TX.
Friends decided in 1999 that, because the Rice’s had been so supportive of the fledgling aviation maintenance vocation, there should be an ongoing foundation formed to continue their efforts even as they were slowly reducing their involvement in the industry. The Northrop Rice Foundation was developed and has supported and encouraged students, instructors, veterans, schools and other aviation maintenance qualified individuals since the foundation’s inception. Jim and Alice supported and challenged the foundation’s board of directors for years. Utilizing financial, equipment, tools, technical book sets, and industry course scholarships, the foundation has provided an annual scholarships and awards program which, in 2019, provided adjudicated applicants with $53,975 worth of these support and encouragement. The foundation has recently revised its efforts to maximizing FAA-certificated personnel entering the AMT workforce by providing financial grants for the FAA technician tests and assisting in tools acquisition. As a publicly supported 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the foundation is committed to improving aviation safety for the general public and welcomes support and donations.
About the Author
Vince Jones joined Boeing in 1963, with his last ten years in the Maintenance Training organization. He taught 757/767 systems, supervised 747-400 airline maintenance training, and was business manager for the organization. He joined ATEC’s Board of Directors in 1995 and was ATEC President 1998-2002. He joined the Northrop Rice Foundation board in 2011 and is currently the foundation’s President.
