Wyman F. Rice, retired ad manager at NEWS

Wyman F. Rice, who started at the Bangor Daily News in 1948 selling advertising space to retailers and retired in 1982 as the paper’s advertising manager, died Dec. 28, 1991. He was 69.

“For 35 years, I have enjoyed every aspect of the newspaper business,” Rice said when he retired a decade ago. “I enjoyed every damn bit of it. It’s a part of my life I’ll always remember and will always be proud of,” Rice had said.

One colleague at the NEWS said Rice’s enjoyment of his career and his family was his trademark.

“He was a person who enjoyed life,” said Cecil Wilson of Brewer, who was associated with Rice for many years at the NEWS and in the Bangor Kiwanis Club. Wilson said that Rice also loved to help other people. He was a dedicated Kiwanian and was one of the club’s best auctioneers.

Called “Wymie” by many of his friends, Rice was born Sept. 6, 1922, in Bangor. He graduated from John Bapst High School in 1940 and went on to earn an associate degree from the University of Maine at Orono. He was in the Fifth Army in the South Pacific during World War II.

He spent five years selling advertising for the NEWS and then was named manager of classified advertising, which he liked to call the “people’s marketplace.” He was promoted to advertising manager in 1980, two years before he chose an early retirement option offered by the newspaper.

He was predeceased by his wife, Jeannette. He is survived by his four children.

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bangor.