RSU President
Biography
Dr. Larry Rice – a lifelong educator, administrator at the University of Tulsa and former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives serves as President at Rogers State University. An Oklahoma native, Rice has over 40 years of experience in higher education.
Rice began his academic career in 1979 as a full-time faculty member at RSU, which was then known as Rogers State College, where he taught classes in criminal justice, psychology and sociology. He was Director of the Applied Science Division at Rogers from 1979 to 1986 and Associate Director of Academics for the Rogers campus in Pryor from 1986 to 1991.
Rice received a doctoral degree in education from Oklahoma State University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on “Eighty Years of University Preparatory Education on College Hill,” which was essentially a history of the institution presently known as RSU.
He served the citizens of Oklahoma as a state representative in House District 8 from 1986 to 2004. He continues to serve the public, including an appointment to the Interstate Oil and Gas Commission representing Oklahoma. In 2006, he was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry as chairman of the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust to oversee and administer the federally funded Tar Creek relocation efforts.
He has served on a wide variety of boards for various organizations, including president and founding member of the Chouteau-Mazie Public Schools Foundation; member of the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma Academy from 1992 to present; and former member of the boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Green Country and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Tulsa.