Born and raised in Manheim in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Rice grew up with his parents in his grandparents' home on Market Square that had been occupied by his family for four generations.

Interested in painting from a young age, William Rice set up a small studio in the corner of his grandfather's shop.

There, he began a friendship with Frederick Meyer, a German immigrant who later was hired as art supervisor for the Stockton public schools.

[3] Rice began a personal exploration of scenic California, visiting Yosemite National Park in 1901 and Lake Tahoe in 1904.

He fraternized with members of the Berkeley Art Colony and contributed his block prints to their Exhibition of California Artists at the Hillside Club in 1911.

Rice's friend Frederick Meyer had founded the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts, originally located in Berkeley and later in Oakland.

In 1913, Rice studied design with Ralph Johonnot, an associate of Arthur Wesley Dow, who was an early advocate of color block printing in the United States.

In 1918, Rice had his first major exhibition of wood and linoleum block prints at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, which was designed by Bernard Maybeck for the Panama Pacific International Exposition.

[7] Rice's artistic collaborators and influences included Pedro de Lemos, Elizabeth Norton, Roi Partridge, Gustave Baumann, Lorenzo P. Latimer, Norma Bassett Hall and the sisters Mary & Frances Gearhart.