He was also founder and director of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration[1] and curator of the South American section of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

After his 1915 marriage, his socialite wife accompanied him on several expeditions to South America which were chronicled in the geographic literature and followed closely by the popular press.

[10] During a 1920 trip, it was reported that "the party warded off an attack by savages and killed two cannibals"[11]‍—‌​"scantily clad ... very ferocious and of large stature".

This four-month expedition ascended the Rio Branco and its Uraricoera headwater (past Maraca Island and the mighty Purumame waterfall) and then, leaving its boats, cutting trails into the Parima hills.

The team had a peaceful encounter with another group of Yanomami whom Rice found poor and repellent but was impressed by their magnificent conical yano hut.

In 1926 Rice offered to finance a railway for 850 km (500 miles) from Manaus north to Boa Vista (then Rio Branco Territory; now State of Roraima) if he was granted an operating franchise and land along it; the local governor refused.

[20] When the Royal Geographical Society in London celebrated its centenary in 1930, he made the largest single donation (£25,000) to its appeal, which was used to build a lecture theater, library, and other rooms at its headquarters.

[21] After retiring, Rice lived in Miramar, his wife's family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where he died on July 23, 1956.