Rice was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised in Puerto Rico, where his father was president of The Central Aguirre Sugar Company.

[3] His books are as highly praised as his teaching and in 1986 Rice was awarded the Philip Schaff Prize[4] from the American Society of Church History for Saint Jerome in the Renaissance.

[6] In 1991, fellow scholars John Monfasani and Ronald G. Musto paid tribute to him with a Festschrift: Renaissance Society and Culture: Essays in Honor of Eugene F. Rice, Jr.

Rice was invited to present his new research on Western homosexuality as a distinguished visiting scholar at Toronto's Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies in 1992.

Upon retirement in 1995, Rice became Shepherd Professor of History Emeritus and a member of the Society of Senior Scholars where, in later years, he continued to teach in the core curriculum.