Fred Rice, Chicago’s first Black permanent police superintendent, died Jan. 10 after a long illness, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He was 84.
Rice, appointed by the late Mayor Harold Washington, headed the police force during the years 1983 to 1987. Rice joined the department in 1955 and served for more than three decades until he stepped down.
Rice was the father of former City Treasurer Judy Rice.
Longtime activist Kit Duffy noted that Rice appointed the first liaison to the LGBT communities in 1984. In an e-mail to Windy City Times, she added, “He did that all on his own… neither Harold nor I knew he even had it in mind until the announcement was in the paper. When I asked him about it he said he thought there were unique problems and they deserved special attention, and he backed that up by appointing his own First Deputy, Ray Risley. He was quite a guy.”
Besides Judy, Rice is survived by his wife, Thelma; a son, Lyle; a sister, Beverly Jones; and two granddaughters.