Daniel Francis Rice Jr. (1927–1990)
Early Life And Adoption
Daniel Francis Rice Jr. was born on December 17, 1927, in Illinois. Modern genealogical indexes and memorial records list his birthplace as Chicago, Cook County. U.S. Geological Survey Publications
His biological parents are not identified in publicly available records. In 1928 he entered the household of Chicago grain broker and future philanthropist Daniel F. Rice and his wife, Ada L. Rice. A later federal court decision, reviewing disputes over the Rice estates, describes him explicitly as “the adopted son and sole heir” of Daniel and Ada.
The adoption was formalized when he was still an infant. Dan and Ada, who were building both a successful commodities business and what would become a major philanthropic legacy, raised him as their only child in a household that moved between the city of Chicago and, later, their country estate at Danada Farm near Wheaton, Illinois.
Childhood, Danada, And Early Travel
As the Rices’ fortunes grew, Dan Jr.’s childhood reflected both privilege and proximity to his parents’ business and social world.
Local research using passenger lists and newspaper society pages shows him traveling with his parents on extended trips at a young age. In early 1935, the family sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu for a winter holiday, returning in mid-February. A few years later, in February 1938, Dan Jr. appears again in travel reports accompanying Dan and Ada on a voyage to Rio de Janeiro. These trips fit with the pattern of the Rices’ emerging status as affluent businesspeople who combined work, leisure, and social obligations across the mainland U.S. and abroad.
Day-to-day details of his early schooling are not well documented. Internal Danada research notes indicate that he attended an academy for at least 8th grade and his freshman year of high school, likely a college-preparatory boarding school in the Chicago area, though surviving school records are sparse. Beyond that, the sources become clearer once he reaches university age.
University Education In California
By the late 1940s, Daniel Rice Jr. was on the West Coast attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Contemporary Chicago newspaper coverage identified him as a UCLA student and noted that he returned to Wheaton to spend holidays with his parents at their Danada estate. One Chicago Tribune item from December 29, 1949, for example, mentions him being home from UCLA for the Christmas season.
Local Danada histories record that he completed his degree at UCLA in the late 1940s before returning to California to begin his working life. Although the surviving public record does not specify his major or exact profession, it is clear that he made Los Angeles his adult home base while maintaining close ties to his parents and to Danada.
Society Life And Marriage
By the early 1950s, Dan Jr. was visible in Chicago’s social columns as the only son of a prominent philanthropic couple. A 1951 Chicago Tribune feature on “Most Eligible Bachelors to Escort Debutantes” in Chicago society listed Daniel F. Rice Jr. among the young men suitable to accompany debutantes at formal events, reflecting both his social standing and his family’s growing profile in the city.
In the spring of 1952, he married Mary Lucille Ruebel of Los Angeles, California. The couple originally planned a formal wedding for the fall of 1952, but instead eloped to Yuma, Arizona, where they were married on May 31. After the ceremony they returned to Los Angeles, where they rented an apartment and where Dan Jr. was employed. Mary was the daughter of Roy Vincent Ruebel and his wife, long-time residents of Los Angeles.
Dan and Ada had already mailed announcements for the originally planned Illinois wedding. When plans changed, they reorganized their celebrations around introducing Mary to the extended Rice circle.
Welcoming Mary Ruebel To Danada
Because of illness, Dan and Ada had to cancel an early August 1952 trip to California, which had been intended as their first in-person visit with their new daughter-in-law. Instead, Dan and Ada arranged a series of parties at Danada later that month once Mary could visit Illinois.
According to local social reports and Danada oral histories, the schedule looked roughly like this:
-
August 27 – A family dinner at the farm to welcome Dan Jr. and Mary and introduce her to close relatives.
-
Thursday evening – A party for Chicago friends of the Rices at Danada.
-
Saturday afternoon – A separate gathering for Wheaton-area friends.
-
Saturday evening – A smaller dinner and dancing event at the farm for Dan Jr.’s contemporaries and friends.
-
Sunday – The young couple were “featured guests” at the annual Labor Day cocktail party hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Horace Wetmore, an established social event in the local calendar.
-
Monday – An outing to Washington Park racetrack for an afternoon at the races before Dan Jr. and Mary’s return flight to Los Angeles.
These gatherings show how seriously Dan and Ada took the social side of their lives. The events allowed them to present Mary formally to both the Chicago financial set and the Wheaton community that had grown up around Danada Farm.
Life In California And The Racing World
After their marriage, Dan Jr. and Mary built their life in Southern California. The public record is relatively quiet on his day-to-day work, but racing coverage and Danada sources make clear that the couple remained closely connected to Dan and Ada’s thoroughbred operations.
Dan and Ada Rice became nationally prominent in thoroughbred racing through the Danada stable, breeding and racing horses in Illinois and Kentucky. Their most famous runner, Lucky Debonair, won the 1965 Kentucky Derby, and also captured major West Coast races at Santa Anita Park.
Photographs and race reports from Santa Anita in the mid-1960s show Dan Jr. and Mary representing the family at major stakes races in California. The couple accepted the winning trophy on behalf of Danada for Lucky Debonair’s victory in the Santa Anita Derby (1965) and again after the Santa Anita Handicap (1966). In that role, Dan Jr. functioned as the California-based face of the Rice racing interests, standing in for his parents at high-profile West Coast events.
Relationship To The Rice Foundation And Estate
Dan and Ada Rice created the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation in 1947 to channel their wealth into philanthropy focused on child welfare, scientific research, conservation, the arts, and educational institutions. Over the following decades, the Foundation became the principal beneficiary of their estate plans, with major gifts to organizations such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago History Museum, Brookfield Zoo, and multiple medical and conservation programs.
As their only child, Dan Jr. occupied a complex position between the private family estate and the public-facing Rice Foundation. Following the deaths of his parents (Dan in 1975 and Ada in 1977), he challenged aspects of their estate planning and the governance of the Rice Foundation in Illinois state courts and in federal court.
A 1979 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit summarizes the situation:
-
It confirms that Daniel Rice Jr. was the adopted son and sole heir of Daniel and Ada Rice.
-
It notes that the Rice Foundation was structured as the principal beneficiary of both estates.
-
It records that Dan Jr. alleged he had been deprived of his rightful share by undue influence and concealment of his rights and sought damages and other relief.
Related Illinois appellate decisions describe a series of wills, codicils, and trust arrangements, including a 1961 testamentary trust in which Dan Jr. was given the net income for life along with a lump-sum inheritance, with the remainder at his death passing to charitable beneficiaries.
For purposes of a historical biography, the key point is not the legal minutiae, but the fact that Dan Jr.’s adult life remained intertwined with the fortunes of the Rice estates and the charitable foundation his parents created. The litigation underscores how large and complicated the Rice legacy had become, and how their only child navigated that landscape as both heir and sometime adversary of the institutions that bore his family’s name.
Later Years And Death
Public sources provide only limited detail about Dan Jr.’s later personal life. He remained based in California and continued to be identified in legal and financial documents as a resident of that state, while maintaining a formal role in disputes relating to the Rice Foundation and the administration of his parents’ estates.
Memorial and genealogical records agree that Daniel Francis Rice Jr. died on May 26, 1990, in Barstow, California, at the age of 62.
Ancestry And Place In The Rice Family Story
Because he was adopted as an infant, Dan Jr.’s biological ancestry is unknown in the surviving public record. By law and by life, however, he belonged to the family of Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice, whose story arcs from modest Chicago origins to national prominence in commodities trading, thoroughbred racing, and large-scale philanthropy.
Through them, his “ancestry” in the Rice narrative can be summarized this way:
-
He was the only child in a household that spanned Chicago’s financial district, a showpiece country estate at Danada, and racing and business interests reaching from Kentucky to California.
-
He grew up among the institutions and enterprises that his parents created, from Danada Farm and the racing stables to the charitable foundation that would continue their giving long after their deaths.
-
He later played a direct role in representing the family at major racing events and an indirect role in shaping how his parents’ wealth would ultimately be stewarded through legal challenges to their estate plans.
When you place his life alongside those of Dan and Ada, Daniel Francis Rice Jr. stands as a quieter but essential figure: the child they chose, the heir who bridged Illinois and California, and the person who lived in the shadow and under the weight of a very public family legacy.
