Kathleen Carson MacIntyre Rice passed away on November 20, 2025, in Peoria, Arizona, at the age of 72.
She was born on January 23, 1953, on a Naval base in China Lake, California, to Dan and Inez MacIntyre.
After moving with the family over five times, changing schools and friends, she graduated from Prescott High School in 1970. Kathleen went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany from Arizona State University in 1990 and a Master of Science degree in Botany from Arizona State University in 1994.
A gifted child, Kathleen's early life revealed many strengths. Marrying early before finishing college, she worked at a sewing factory to support her family. Her childhood interest in plants grew into a career as a botanist. From 1992 to 1993, she served as a biotechnician for the USDA Forest Service in Phoenix. In 1995, she published her thesis, "Flora of the Superstition Mountains."! In 1994 through 2008, she held her dream job as the Curator of Seeds and Rare Plants at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, where she and a team of volunteers "curated the seed collection, conducted germination tests, and transported thousands of threatened cactus seedlings in an effort to augment diminishing populations in west Texas." From 2010 to 2015, she served as an Adjunct Instructor at Scottsdale Community College, where she taught courses including "Plants and Society" and "Environmental Biology." Additionally, she served as a Research Assistant at Arizona State University, helping Dr. Leslie R. Landrum photograph and record a database of herbarium specimens.
Her major accomplishment was having her son, Stephen Rice. As a very young mother, she had strong feelings about how she wanted to nurse and nurture him, often taking pride in each exhibition of strength and intelligence. She also adored her grandchildren, often bringing silliness and laughter to the house.
Kathy's interests were eclectic: art, music, dance, literature, and travel. From an early age, she was an avid reader of Russian classics, Saul Bellow, the early history of Christianity, and scientific tomes. She wrote poetry, which she illustrated with a sketch of a plant, a journal entry, a long letter, or a scientific paper. With an early interest in art, she sketched family portraits and painted in acrylic and watercolor with her father. Later, she developed a passion for sketching nature in charcoal, pencil, and ink. Throughout her life, she befriended those who were unpopular and underprivileged. She loved her first dog, Ripper, and as an adult, she took in colorful combinations of stray dogs and cats.
She loved cooking, especially tamales and quiche, which she shared regularly with her volunteers. Many enjoyed her sense of humor, which she openly shared with her family and friends from diverse backgrounds and cultures. While sometimes spicy and fey, her legacy was her relationship with others: the cadre of Desert Botanical Garden volunteers whom she supervised and motivated; the staff at Paseo Village, who remarkably described her as "nice" and "the classiest client we have."
She is survived by her son, Stephen Rice; grandchildren, Ilyssa, Maddison, and Matthew; her former spouse, Michael Rice; and siblings, Carol MacIntyre, Jim MacIntyre, and Clint MacIntyre. She is preceded in death by her parents, Daniel Carson and Eula Inez MacIntyre.
Celebration of Life Service tentatively planned for mid-February 2026, Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona 85008. Copy and paste this address into your browser: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/kathleen-rice-obituary?id=60114576#guestbook
and find Follow This Page to input your email address for updates about the ceremony date and time.
Donations: In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Desert Botanical Garden, https://dbg.org/support/donations/
She was born on January 23, 1953, on a Naval base in China Lake, California, to Dan and Inez MacIntyre.
After moving with the family over five times, changing schools and friends, she graduated from Prescott High School in 1970. Kathleen went on to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany from Arizona State University in 1990 and a Master of Science degree in Botany from Arizona State University in 1994.
A gifted child, Kathleen's early life revealed many strengths. Marrying early before finishing college, she worked at a sewing factory to support her family. Her childhood interest in plants grew into a career as a botanist. From 1992 to 1993, she served as a biotechnician for the USDA Forest Service in Phoenix. In 1995, she published her thesis, "Flora of the Superstition Mountains."! In 1994 through 2008, she held her dream job as the Curator of Seeds and Rare Plants at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, where she and a team of volunteers "curated the seed collection, conducted germination tests, and transported thousands of threatened cactus seedlings in an effort to augment diminishing populations in west Texas." From 2010 to 2015, she served as an Adjunct Instructor at Scottsdale Community College, where she taught courses including "Plants and Society" and "Environmental Biology." Additionally, she served as a Research Assistant at Arizona State University, helping Dr. Leslie R. Landrum photograph and record a database of herbarium specimens.
Her major accomplishment was having her son, Stephen Rice. As a very young mother, she had strong feelings about how she wanted to nurse and nurture him, often taking pride in each exhibition of strength and intelligence. She also adored her grandchildren, often bringing silliness and laughter to the house.
Kathy's interests were eclectic: art, music, dance, literature, and travel. From an early age, she was an avid reader of Russian classics, Saul Bellow, the early history of Christianity, and scientific tomes. She wrote poetry, which she illustrated with a sketch of a plant, a journal entry, a long letter, or a scientific paper. With an early interest in art, she sketched family portraits and painted in acrylic and watercolor with her father. Later, she developed a passion for sketching nature in charcoal, pencil, and ink. Throughout her life, she befriended those who were unpopular and underprivileged. She loved her first dog, Ripper, and as an adult, she took in colorful combinations of stray dogs and cats.
She loved cooking, especially tamales and quiche, which she shared regularly with her volunteers. Many enjoyed her sense of humor, which she openly shared with her family and friends from diverse backgrounds and cultures. While sometimes spicy and fey, her legacy was her relationship with others: the cadre of Desert Botanical Garden volunteers whom she supervised and motivated; the staff at Paseo Village, who remarkably described her as "nice" and "the classiest client we have."
She is survived by her son, Stephen Rice; grandchildren, Ilyssa, Maddison, and Matthew; her former spouse, Michael Rice; and siblings, Carol MacIntyre, Jim MacIntyre, and Clint MacIntyre. She is preceded in death by her parents, Daniel Carson and Eula Inez MacIntyre.
Celebration of Life Service tentatively planned for mid-February 2026, Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona 85008. Copy and paste this address into your browser: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/kathleen-rice-obituary?id=60114576#guestbook
and find Follow This Page to input your email address for updates about the ceremony date and time.
Donations: In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Desert Botanical Garden, https://dbg.org/support/donations/
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Kathleen Rice, please visit our flower store.
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