A Memorial Service for Melvin H. Rice will be held on Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 10:30 A.M. at the Grace Lutheran Church in Sisseton, South Dakota. Visitation will be Friday evening, the 10th, from 7-9:00 PM at the Cahill Funeral Chapel. Melvin passed away peacefully in his home in San Diego on May 1, 2012 after a long and courageous battle with colon cancer. Melvin was born in Sisseton, South Dakota, on April 26, 1930 to Hilman and Alice (Okeson) Rice. He attended Sisseton High School, graduating as Valedictorian of his class in 1948. He went on to receive a B.S. in Physics from the South Dakota School of Mines in 1952, an M.S. in Physics from Iowa State University in 1955 and PhD in Physics from Iowa State University in 1958. Melvin married Mary Susan Stuart in 1954. They had two children, Rebecca in 1957, and Suzanne in 1959.
In 1962 he married LeAnn King. They had one daughter, Alice, in 1963. Dr. Rice worked at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1952 to 1965. He was a Professor of Physics at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota from 1965 to 1972. He then moved to Del Mar, CA and worked in the Systems Division of Maxwell Technologies, where he spent the remainder of his career until his retirement in 2005 at the age of 75. Melvin was the author/co-author of more than 60 technical reports and some 12 articles in the open literature, including a widely quoted survey article on chock-wave physics. One of the highlights of Melvin's career occurred in 1987, when he was awarded the first George E. Duvall Shock Compression Science Award, along with Mac Walsh and Robert McQueen. Melvin has life-long passion for gold, playing classical piano music, and videotaping and photographing his family.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his cousin James Carney Jr., and one grandson, Timothy Benidt.
Melvin is survived by his daughters, Alice L. King, Suzanne and her husband Greg Benidt of Sisseton, South Dakota and Rebecca and her husband, James Thvedt of Minneapolis, Minnesota; his sister, Betty and her husband, David Berg of Minneapolis, Minnesota; his grandchildren: Benjamin, Michael, Ingrid, Alison, and Emma Thvedt, Nathan and his wife Kristen Benidt, Samuel, Luke, Joseph and make Benidt; two nieces and two nephews; six grandnephews and one grandniece; and his caregiver, Vanessa Diaz of Oceanside, CA. Melvin said he wished to remembered as a pe5son who was competent in his chosen field and didn't cause any trouble for anyone.