By Michelle Doherty (née Rice)
Arthur “Art” Gary Rice passed away on September 3, just three weeks shy of his 85th birthday.
In the last ten years, friends could spot him walking around town, checking out the latest crime novel, or buying his lotto and joe. Others could find him at the boardwalk, basking in the afternoon sun.
He sent letters to the editor about important issues and how to fix them. He wrote poems and loved to tell stories. One story he told was about a farmer in Borneo plowing his field with oxen, how it was “a scene from a thousand years ago. Nothing had changed.”
A lover of history, he touted his revolutionary war roots and his ancestral cousin, “Buffalo Bill.” No one wondered where he got his fighting spirit. More often than not, he was known to cause some trouble.
Art was born on Sept. 25, 1939, to Arthur and Margaret Rice in New Jersey. He grew up in Hudson and Essex counties, enjoying summers on the Jersey Shore. After high school, he joined the Marines and was deployed as a rifleman.
Art married his first wife, Carmen Robles, in 1962 and had two daughters, Laura and Susan. Art later met his second wife, Marion Kitchen (née Ohanesian) in Boston. They returned to California with Marion’s four kiddos, Ed, Brad, Bill and Lynda, in tow. In 1970, they had his third daughter, Michelle, in Laguna Beach.
As a longtime resident of Laguna Beach, Art spent many “golden” days body surfing and tossing frisbee at St. Ann’s Beach. A sports aficionado, he frequented his daughters’ and stepson’s games and bragged of their triumphs. Art and Marion divorced but remained lifelong friends and coconspirators until she passed away in 2015.
He is survived by his daughter Michelle and her husband Steve; daughters Laura and Susan; stepsons Ed, Brad, and Bill; stepdaughter Lynda; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Art’s honor at Laguna Church-by-the-Sea on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. The next day, his family will paddle out to his favorite spot to scatter his ashes at sea.
“As I sit alone on the darkening sand, I watch the beautiful setting sun; the lonely, soulful flight of the seagull on the run; and the ever beautiful, ever unpredictable sea; and I sit here and think the best things in life must surely be free.” ~ Sunset Interlude by Art Rice
