John Andrew Rice Jr. (February 1, 1888, to November 16, 1968) was the founder and first rector of Black Mountain College, located near Asheville, North Carolina.

After graduating from Oxford, he married Nell Aydelotte and began teaching at Webb School, but left after a year to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, which he never completed.

His teaching methods were aimed at accelerating the students' emotional and intellectual maturity, rather than encouraging a reliance on a store of subject knowledge.

Rice also spoke out against fraternities and sororities and objected to various policies of the president of Rollins, Hamilton Holt, who asked him to resign.

[1] Rice then began planning for the learning community that became Black Mountain College, which opened in 1933 with twenty-one students and three other faculty from Rollins, dismissed for refusing to sign a "loyalty pledge" to Holt.

He then began another career as a writer, contributing many short stories to such publications as Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper's and the New Yorker.