Eric David Rice

STOUGHTON - Eric David Rice of Stoughton, passed away peacefully on March 9, 2026.

Eric was born on October 28, 1964, in Madison at University Hospital, to the late David E. Rice and Suzanne C. (nee Walkowiak) Rice. The family moved to Milwaukee when he was a baby, and Eric spent his early years in Greenfield, and then Oconomowoc where he graduated from high school in 1982. He was a proud member of the OHS Wind Symphony on baritone. Eric excelled at math and was a member of the math club, Mu Alpha Theta.

Eric attended UW-Madison after graduation, and then joined the U.S. Air Force. After his service he returned to UW-Madison to study linguistics. Eric had a gift for language and decided he wanted to serve in the U.S. Army as a translator. After learning Korean at the Defense Language Institute in California, he was sent to Korea where he was a talented translator in his unit. After his active duty with the Army was complete, Eric returned to the U.S. and made his way back to Madison, a city he loved.

Eric met Jaquie (nee Jernstedt) Rice through his sister, and they were married in 1995 in Madison and remained friends even after their divorce many years later.

Eric was incredibly intelligent, and made a career in IT after reading books about programming. He earned his Microsoft certification and worked for Softmart where he got to hone his skills doing installs and troubleshooting at GM Janesville and American Family Insurance. While he enjoyed IT and had a natural talent with computers, his true love was the culinary arts. After a particularly grueling day on an IT help desk, he enrolled in MATC’s culinary program and found a job the same day at the Concourse Hotel. Eric loved learning about food, technique, fermenting, baking, canning and ethnic cuisine. For years he grew pickling cucumbers and tomatoes, and then canned them. His apple butter and homemade jams were exceptional. In later years he was a master fermenter.

Eric truly found his niche in catering and excelled with UW-Housing on their catering team. He loved his coworkers, especially the international students he got to know.

In the last five years, Eric began a knife-sharpening business and was known at area farmers markets as “The Knife Guy.” As with everything he did, Eric quickly became an expert on the proper angles and technique of keeping blades well honed.

Eric was a kidney transplant recipient (twice) and remained grateful to the UW Health Transplant miracle team in Madison. Special thanks to his doctors, including Dr. Dixon Kaufman, for literally saving his life twice.

Eric loved road rides on his bike, live music, cross-country skiing at Elver Park, a Guinness, all things Irish, cats, pierogis, his cousins, authentic cuisine, a good book, video games, clever humor, Cirque du Soleil shows, black tea, Gaelic Storm, and people who similarly could talk in depth about nearly anything.

He is survived by his mother, Suzanne Rice of Stoughton; his sister, Sheri Rice (Tim Lightner) of North Lake, Wis.; and a step-niece, Alexandra Lightner. He is also survived by numerous cousins, aunts and uncles, and beloved friends.

A celebration of Eric’s life will be held at a later date. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson Stoughton

Funeral & Cremation Care

1358 Highway 51 N. at Jackson St.

(608) 873-4590