Norman Rice

Norman Rice was elected mayor of Seattle in 1989 and served two four-year terms. He was the first African American to win the office and the first in the nation to govern a city that had an African American population of less than 10 percent. Both before and after his terms as mayor, Rice was deeply involved in the affairs of his city, serving with a variety of civic organizations and on governmental committees and boards. From 1999 to 2005 he was president and CEO of the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank, and in 2007 he was named distinguished visiting practitioner at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. After chairing a committee to help plan the redevelopment of the Yesler Terrace public housing project, Rice in 2009 became president and CEO of The Seattle Foundation, from which he retired in 2014.