I. Preston Rice established his residence in Grand Rapids in the autumn of 1899, when he came here from Detroit and organized the Grand Rapids Malleable Company. He resigned from this company and engaged in the veneer and lumber business, later organizing the Rice Veneer & Lumber Company. In 1912 his company built the brick warehouse on Campau avenue and the G. R. & I. Railway. This was the home of the business until 1920, when the same company built the veneer manufacturing plant now operated by the Mutual Veneer Company at Fuller Station. In 1923 this company purchased the premises at 549 to 553 Alabama avenue N. W., where the business is now located and doing a rapidly expanding trade. Mr. Rice is president and manager of the company, with C. A. Canterbury and K. L. Rice as associate officers. The enterprise is one of broad scope, its products coming from many foreign lands and the United States. Mr. Rice’s contribution to the commercial and industrial activities of Grand Rapids is of no minor order. Mr. Rice was born in the small village of Smithsburg, Maryland, where he gained his earlier education, which was augmented by several years of training at the Cumberland Valley State Normal School at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and later in Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg.