Obituary: Small man had big dreams

John Rice was a self-made millionaire who, at 2-foot-10, was in the record books as one of the world's shortest twins. But neither his wealth nor his height is what people say they will most remember about him.

Rice and his identical twin, Greg, are household names in Palm Beach County, Fla., where they prospered in real estate, ran a motivational firm and attained celebrity as improbable television pitchmen for a pest-control company. They led parades, spoke at schools, visited hospitals and hosted charity events with a brio unimaginable for two who struggled from birth against dreadful odds.

So when John, the more extroverted twin, died unexpectedly Nov. 5, Palm Beach went into mourning.

He had just completed an errand at a bank the previous day when he slipped and broke his leg. He died while undergoing anesthesia for an operation. He was 53.

Flags at City Hall were lowered to half-staff. Hundreds packed Rice's funeral, and tributes poured into the local paper and a Web site.

Many testimonials were sent by strangers who met Rice via random contacts: He was the Christmas elf who handed out toys at the hospital; the sporty figure who whizzed down the sidewalk on his Segway scooter; the debonair gent who often walked his Dalmatian, Zippo, around nearby Lake Worth, where he lived in a renovated yellow cottage.

The Rices were abandoned soon after birth at a West Palm Beach hospital on Dec. 3, 1951. They lived in the hospital for eight months until Mildred and Frank Windsor became their foster parents.

Frank, a school custodian, and Mildred, a full-time mother and devout Pentecostal Christian, were smitten by the tiny babies.

"Our mother, being wise beyond her formal education, was able to convey to us that, yes, we were always going to be different, but it was OK to be different," Greg said.

"She said, 'It's up to you to determine what your real value is going to be in life. You're like a couple of dimes in a bunch of nickels.' "

That homespun philosophy kept the brothers going, even when Mildred Windsor died of cancer when they were in eighth grade and their foster father, Frank, died two years later. They took regular classes and played in the high-school band.

John — older than Greg by five minutes — was the more adventuresome of the pair.

It was John's idea, for instance, to try real estate. He and Greg had been honing their sales skills since they were high-school seniors selling cleaning and personal-care products door to door. When he tired of the travel, John proposed that they sell homes.

They eventually started buying and selling houses on their own. According to Greg, that's how they made their first $1 million.

In the late 1980s the twins launched a Sunday morning real-estate show, called "Television Home Hunt," which featured decorating, home-improvement and moving tips in addition to showcasing homes on the market. The half-hour program was airing in 30 cities before the Rices sold it.

That show led them to the pest-control business. They had approached Hulett Environmental Services to advertise on the program, but Hulett couldn't afford to produce commercials. The Rice brothers offered to make ads in exchange for a stake in the company.

The Rice brothers also appeared on "Real People," the "Maury Povich Show," "That Quiz Show" and the sitcom "Foul Play."