Raymond "Jupp" Rice

His friends and family are invited to celebrate his life and share memories at a visitation from 7:00 to 9:00PM, Friday, March 5 at Hanes-Lineberry N. Elm Chapel. The funeral will follow on March 6th at 2:00PM with Dr. Steven Fitzgerald officiating in the Hanes-Lineberry N. Elm Chapel. A committal service will immediately follow at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Jupp was born on May 11, 1954 in Washington D.C and was adopted through the Children’s Home Society in Greensboro, N.C. by Alfred Jupp Rice and Susie Pounds Rice, both of whom predeceased him. Whether it was the YMCA basketball, Mildred Steeds Formal Dancing Class, Cub Scouts, buying US Savings Bonds or taking care of guinea pigs, Al and Susie did a swell job in providing a wonderful childhood. Jupp graduated from Grimsley High School in 1972 where he held membership in a number of organizations including the Mixed Chorus, Junior Varsity Basketball, while also serving as the President of the Interact Club. He was also on the Student Council as Pep Board Chairman and was a Senior Service recipient as the most “School Spirited.”

Following his prep career in Greensboro, Jupp enrolled at Appalachian State University in the fall of 1972, where he became a cheerleader for one year before joining the Collegiate Civic Club which later became a chapter in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. He served as Vice President of the fraternity and was selected for the Senior Service Award. Following graduation he would be chosen as Alumni of the Year for several years. During his undergraduate career Jupp was also on the championship team in Flag Football and helped organize a group at UNCG for membership in Lambda Chi Alpha . These fraternal experiences played a huge part in his growth as a teacher, coach, counselor and helped shape his philosophy and approach to life in general.

In 1978, he graduated with a B.S. degree in Education from Appalachian and later added an M.A. in Learning Disabilities in 1980. Having found his calling as an educator, Jupp added a Principal’s Certificate from North Carolina A&T University in 1991. Twelve years later he received his AIG Teacher’s Certificate from East Carolina University.

Not only did he pursue a lifelong education, Jupp attempted to foster a similar love of learning among his pupils. Over the course of a near three decade career he taught and coached in six different school systems throughout the Triad and Eastern North Carolina. His coaching assignments included boys and girls swimming at High Point Central High and New Bern High School. He also coached Jacksonville High School’s junior varsity men’s soccer team as well as several middle school soccer teams; many of which featured players from the roster of the recreational soccer teams that fell under his tutelage.

Coaching and teaching in the various school systems was his calling for the majority of the calendar years, but there was one more location that afforded him the ability to expand his reach and to learn from friends hailing from every corner of the world: The YMCA’s Camp Sea Gull in Arapahoe, North Carolina.

Jupp’s history with Camp spanned five decades. He started as a camper, Camper In Leadership Training (CILT), and counselor, and served in a variety of leadership roles including Lake Chief, Land Chief, and Head Counselor of Camps III and IV. With his trademark Camp spirit, he championed the Sea Gull tradition of Water Football Friday, regular Clean Sweeps to “leave Camp better than we found it,” and a 20 year partnership with the American Red Cross that continues to this day. He was the first recipient of the “Character Counts” Award at Sea Gull. As his teaching career advanced, Jupp would often note that teaching allowed him the opportunity to spend his summers being a big kid on the Pamlico Sound at Camp.

There were many cherished friendships that blossomed from Sea Gull, but one group stands out. In the 1980s a group of counselors and staff members came together to have a holiday gathering where they enjoyed comradery, traded stories, and may have consumed a few Budweisers. For the last forty years they have celebrated this tradition each and every December while christening the annual gathering as, “Beach Mule: A Shrimp Function By The Sea”.

Away from school and camp, Jupp’s other community services included serving as Chief of the YMCA’s Indian Guides program in High Point, Sunday School teacher at Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, and volunteer for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Trent Woods. He was also a lifelong blood donor for the American Red Cross.

In 1982, Jupp met Pamela Davis through mutual friends. The two were wed on April 15, 1984. Not only did Jupp acquire a wife, but also acquired a step-son, John Calier Watson, IV. Two years later, they welcomed a daughter, Elizabeth Kate Rice. And, soon after, the family grew by three as three Dalmatians joined the throng.

His family and friends remember Jupp as an incredible family man. From spending hours with John and Elizabeth on the soccer fields, at camp, on school field trips, chaperoning dances, and helping with school projects, he always was there cheering them on.

Though he has departed this life, Jupp and his life remain an excellent example of a caring and respectful husband, a proud father, and, eventually, an adoring grandfather. He was the embodiment of the words found in 1 John 3:18: “…let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

Ever cognizant of the plight of others, and realizing the gravity and ultimate path Lewy Body Dementia would force him to tread, Jupp made the decision to donate his brain to the Mayo Clinic for research in hopes that through the power of education and research, other families might be spared from this horrible disease.

He is survived by his loving wife of nearly 37 years, Pamela, his step son, John Calier Watson IV and his wife, Tracy and granddaughter Ridley Caroline Watson; a daughter Elizabeth Rice Lambrecht and her husband, SSgt. Miles Lambrecht. He is also survived by his sister, Elizabeth Rice Eure and nephew, Christopher Eure and his wife, Winnie and their two children; father-in-law, Harvey J. Davis, Jr. and sister-in-law, Kristi Davis Talbert and her husband, Rev. Mark Talbert, Jr. and their family.

One of Jupp’s final acts in this life was to dictate a final message to his friends, families, and loved ones to remember him by. Those words were:

I’d be remised if I didn’t mention those that helped me grow through the years, the problem is that they’re so many that we’d spend ages doing that. So please accept my thanks for all you have meant to me. In the movie “Saving Private Ryan” a certain quote spoke to me. The part where Captain Miller speaks His dying words to Private Ryan. He says, “Earn this. Earn it.” Well, I hope in your eyes, I have.

Well, thanks again- gotta go -my next stop: The Twilight Zone.

Pamela and her family express their sincere gratitude to Dr. Burton L. Scott and staff of the Division of Neurology Duke University Movement Disorders Center.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests charitable contributions in memory of Jupp Rice be sent to the following, Camp Sea Gull, 218 Sea Gull Landing, Arapahoe, NC 28510, American Red Cross, PO Box 37839, Boone, IA 50037, www.redcross.org, or to the Brain Support Network, PO Box 7246, Menlo Park, CA 94026, www.brainsupportnetwork.org.

Hanes Lineberry North Elm Chapel is honored to assist the Rice family.