Delbert Rice (missionary)

This article is about the American missionary and environmental activist. For the American baseball player and manager, see Del Rice.
Delbert Rice
BornJanuary 24, 1928
Corvallis, Oregon
DiedMay 8, 2014 (aged 86)
Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya
Alma materOregon State College

Arthur Delbert Rice, Jr. (January 24, 1928 - May 8, 2014) was an American missionary, anthropologist, and environmental activist. He is best known for his environmental and human rights advocacy work with the Ikalahan community in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines.[1]

Rice co-founded the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development and the Kalahan Educational Foundation in Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, and formerly served as chair of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development.[2]

Biography

Early life and education

Born January 24, 1928 in Corvallis, Oregon, Delbert was the first child of Arthur Delbert Rice, Sr. and Linne Opal Shipley. His parents come from a German Evangelical Lutheran background. Rice is a ninth generation descendant of German theologian Anthony Jacob Henckel.[3]

Rice and his family moved to San Diego, California in 1940 after his father accepted a new job handling supplies for the United States Navy. During World War II, the Rice family again moved to Liberty Lake, Washington after his father was reassigned to the Navy Supply Depot (now Industrial Park) in Spokane Valley. Rice graduated from Central Valley High School in absentia after enlisting for the United States Coast Guard at age 17.[3]

In 1946, Rice went to Oregon State College where he majored in electrical engineering. While in college, Rice joined the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in his first year which inspired him to pursue a Bachelor of Divinity degree and serve as an engineer and missionary in China.[3]

After graduating as an electrical engineer in 1950, Rice married fellow student Esther Rhoda Bernham, the daughter of Christian missionaries in China who were killed during the war in 1940. Rice then joined the Western Evangelical Seminary to work on his divinity degree, while Esther worked as an office clerk and high school teacher to support themselves. Rice graduated from the seminary in 1955, and accepted a call to work as a missionary in the Philippines. By then Esther had already given birth to their first son Harold in 1953 and their second son Alfred in 1955.[3]

Move to the Philippines and environmental activism

Delbert, Esther and their two children boarded a ship in Seattle bound for Manila on March 16, 1956. While on the ship, Rice was informed that he will be working with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines where he will be assigned to Laoag, the capital of Ilocos Norte.[3]

In 1965, Rice and his family moved to the indigenous mountain community of Imugan in Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, where he since resided permanently. Rice witnessed the struggles of the local Ikalahan community, including legal battles, from several attempts by wealthy land developers and even government officials to seize portions of their ancestral land.[4]

In 1970, the national government of the Philippines planned to convert 6,300 hectares of ancestral lands into a vacation destination to be known as "Marcos City", named after President Ferdinand Marcos. With the support of Rice, the local community filed a legal case to force the government to recognize their ancestral land claims, which resulted in a legal victory in 1972 forcing the government to abandon its plans to develop the area.[4]

The legal victory also resulted in the issuance of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) No. 1 between the former Bureau of Forest Development and the Ikalahan people, which legitimized the claims of the Ikalahan to the ancestral lands, established the Kalahan Forest Reserve, and provided them with control and authority in land and natural resource management. In turn, the Ikalahan were given the responsibility of protecting the watershed.[5][6]

Rice co-founded the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development. Along with Ikalahan tribal elders, Rice co-established the Kalahan Educational Foundation (KEF), a people's organization composed of the total population of Imugan.[7] He also served as a founding board member of the Non-Timber Forest Products – Exchange Programme and chair of the civil society counterpart of the government-sanctioned Philippine Council for Sustainable Development.[2]

Rice also spearheaded the Ikalahan community's venture into fruit-processing with the help of Esther, who was a food technologist. Through the KEF, the community started processing products in 1980 from guava, dagwey (Saurauia subglabra), dikay (Embelia philippinensis), ginger, passion fruit, roselle and santol.[4] Rice also facilitated the marketing and importation of the products to Metro Manila and in other countries.

According to lawyer and environmentalist Tony La Viña, Rice faced as many as three dozen cases for his deportation filed by "vested interests" in large projects that Rice campaigned against such as golf courses and mining operations. None of the cases ever prospered.[8]

Personal life

Rice died on May 8, 2014 in Imugan, Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya.[9] He was survived by his five children: Harold, Alfred, Eugene, Tim and Flora Joy; and thirteen grandchildren.[10]

Legacy

An earthworm species discovered in the Philippines, Archipheretima ricei, was named after Rice in 2009 in recognition for his work in preserving the forests of the Caraballo Mountains where the specimen was collected.[11][12]

In September 2014, the Ateneo de Manila University posthumously awarded Rice the Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan (Public Service Award) for his "pioneering efforts in sustainable upland development, agroforestry, land rights protection, education for indigenous peoples and institution building."[13][8][14]

The Pastor Rice Small Grants Fund, which provides funding to women-led indigenous community initiatives in Southeast Asia, was named after Rice.[15][16]

Published works

  • Anthropology in Development and Integration: The Kalahan Experience (1977)[17]
  • Development and Ethics: The Kalahan Experience (1982)[18]
  • An Ecology Manual for Upland Farmers (1993)[19]
  • Ecology: Ti Urnos Ti Lubong (1998)[20]
  • The Quiet Ones Speak: Testimonies Concerning Christian Beginnings (2001)[21]
  • Basic Upland Ecology (2007)[22]
  • Life in the Forest: Ikalahan Folk Stories (2011)[23]
  • Walking with a Troublemaker (2011)[24]

References

  1. ^ "Environmentalist Pastor Delbert Rice passes away". GMA News Online. May 13, 2014. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  2. ^ a b Esmaquel, Paterno (17 February 2011). "Pastor: Mining is no evil, but please spare Palawan". GMA News Online. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  3. ^ a b c d e Lee, Eun Joo (March 2014). Arthur Delbert Rice, Jr. : pursuit of shalom : encompassing care of creation in mission in the Philippines. OCLC 890200260.
  4. ^ a b c "In search of excellence: exemplary forest management in Asia and the Pacific". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  5. ^ "The Kalahan Educational Foundation: on the Ground Initiative for Forest Conservation and Cultural Preservation".
  6. ^ Rice, Delbert (2002). "The Kalahan sanctuaries: Promoting biodiversity".
  7. ^ "Forests, trees and people - Newsletter - No. 30, march, 1996". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  8. ^ a b tonylavina (2014-09-16). "A big but very gentle footprint". Tony La Viña. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  9. ^ "In Memoriam Rev. Delbert Arthur Rice". World Agroforestry | Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  10. ^ "Rice, A. Delbert". gnw-coldconf.brtsite.com. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  11. ^ "ITIS - Report: Archipheretima ricei". www.itis.gov. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  12. ^ James, Samuel W. (2009-08-25). "Revision of the earthworm genus Archipheretima Michaelsen (Clitellata: Megascolecidae), with descriptions of new species from Luzon and Catanduanes Islands, Philippines". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 9 (3): 244.e1–244.e16. Bibcode:2009ODivE...944.e1J. doi:10.1016/j.ode.2009.03.004. ISSN 1439-6092.
  13. ^ Mindanews (2014-09-17). "3 of 6 Ateneo de Manila awardees are Mindanawons". MindaNews. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  14. ^ "6 awardees lauded during the Special Academic Convocation". The GUIDON. 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  15. ^ "Local Initiative Fund – NTFP VietNam". Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  16. ^ Bricis, Larissa (2025-01-31). "Transforming Philanthropy Through a Community-Centred Lens". Foundations 20. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  17. ^ Rice, A. Delbert (1977). Anthropology in development and integration the Kalahan experience.
  18. ^ Rice, Delbert (1982). Development and ethics the Kalahan experience. Participatory approaches to development seminar series. Manila: Integrated Research Center, De La Salle University.
  19. ^ Rice, Delbert (1993). An ecology manual for upland farmers. Manila: Philippine Uplands Resource Center, De La Salle University. ISBN 978-971-528-007-5.
  20. ^ Rice, Delbert (1998). Ecology: ti urnos ti lubong: pagadalan dagiti tattao a taga bantay. Quezon City: New Day Publishers. ISBN 978-971-10-1025-6.
  21. ^ Rice, Delbert (2001). The Quiet ones speak: testimonies concerning Christian beginnings. Quezon City: New Day Publishers. ISBN 978-971-10-1044-7.
  22. ^ Rice, Delbert (2007). Basic upland ecology. Quezon City: New Day Publishers. ISBN 978-971-10-1165-9.
  23. ^ "Life in the forest : Ikalahan folk stories | Ortigas Foundation Library". www.ortigasfoundationlibrary.com.ph. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
  24. ^ Rice, Delbert (2011). Walking with a troublemaker. Quezon City: New Day Publishers.
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