Dan Rice

Looking through my computer files today, I ran across the following item I wrote. It reminded me of two things. First, the brevity of life and the uncertainty of knowing how long we are going to live. Second, the importance of following through with our plans to do things we say we're going to do. 
Remembering Dan Rice
By Stan Faddis

Retired Santa Clara County Probation Officer, Dan Rice, passed away March 25, 2007.  

Upon my promotion from Group Counselor to DPO II and getting assigned to the North Delinquent Unit in 1997, I was trained by Dan. Several people had told me that he was “grumpy” and “hard to deal with.” I found that under that tough exterior there was a very nice and compassionate man as well as an experienced officer who truly cared about the minors. We had a good friendship, which included quite a bit of joking around. Dan once told me, “Stan, I have forgotten more about being a probationer officer than you’ll ever know!” 

Dan was a great mentor and I was fortunate to be trained by him. He taught me a lot including how to write good juvenile reports that would convince the judges to go with my recommendations, how to deal with difficult parents and how to prioritize my workload. In getting to know Dan, I learned how proud he was of his children, Melissa and Daniel; and he taught me a few things about raising my own children.

Not long before he retired, Dan confided in me that he had contracted cancer. As I recall, it was a form of leukemia. Fortunately, the cancer went into remission and it looked like all was well. A couple of years ago I got a phone call from Dan. He wanted us to get together for lunch. My guess is that he wanted to rub it in a little about how much he was enjoying his retirement. However, I also knew he genuinely liked me and wanted just to visit and see how I was doing.  I promised I would get back to him, but I never did. 

Today, I learned from a coworker of Dan’s daughter, Melissa, that Dan had gotten cancer again that led to his premature death. Reportedly, Dan did not want others to know about it. And because I did not take the time to follow up on his invitation to go to lunch, I didn’t get to spend some more time with him. This is very regretful.

According to the email notice, there are not going to be any public services, so I have written this very small tribute to let those who read it know what a great man I think Daniel Sumner Rice was. It makes me smile to know that he would have yelled at me for telling everyone his middle name. 

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