Local pharmacist remembered fondly by co-workers, friends

Gary Rice, above, at far right, with co-workers at Forcht Pharmacy. Rice died Dec. 31.

If you ask just about anyone who knew him, Gary Rice was one of those guys everyone liked.

Popular among his co-workers, friends and beloved by his family, Rice died unexpectedly on the last day of 2015 after 12-hours of surgery to repair a tear in his aorta at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.

Rice, 65, a native of Barbourville, worked for 15 years at Institutional Pharmacy, Inc. (known as Forcht Pharmacy) before his death. The company provides medications and medical supplies to nursing homes that are under the Forcht Group of Kentucky corporate umbrella.

Larry Hill, Chief Pharmacist at Forcht Pharmacy, said Rice was a close, personal friend who “never had a bad word to say about anyone.”

“He was very popular among our staff,” said Hill.

“Everybody liked him a great deal. He was always smiling and jolly … very easy to get along with. He was never disagreeable with anyone.”

Rice didn’t even realize he had a serious heart issue until early 2014 when a routine physical revealed atrial fibrillation. Though not usually fatal, it can be life threatening if left untreated.

Hill said Rice had several significant procedures performed to correct the issue — replacement of two heart valves with artificial valves and a “cardiac ablation,” a procedure done to slow down the heartbeat.

Rice had problems coming out of the surgery and never regained his previous stamina.

Sheila Rice, Gary Rice’s wife of 44-years, said the two met and were “school sweethearts” at Barbourville Independent Schools before being married. She said her husband’s death was a total shock. He complained of very serious stomach pain, and was even diagnosed with acid reflux, before physicians finally decided that he had an aortic aneurysm in his stomach and a tear in his aorta, that was leaking, further up in his chest. He was flown to Lexington for procedures to correct the problems. About twelve hours into surgery, doctors informed the family that they could not get his heart restarted again.

“It was horrible, it really was,” Sheila Rice said. “I was really surprised. I thought he would make it all along.”

The couple has two daughters, one, Tara Morgan, who is also a pharmacist. Her father died on her birthday Dec. 31.

“She would tell him, ‘daddy, you can’t die on my birthday,’” Sheila Rice said. “She posted on her Facebook page that she now shares a birthday with her dad — her earthly birthday and his birthday in Heaven. She was always a daddy’s girl.”

His other daughter, Tanya Sawyers, is called the families “miracle child” because she was diagnosed with leukemia when she was just 15-months-old, and had a serious seizure when she was just five. She’s now in her 40s.

Rice served as a consultant pharmacist at nursing homes in Wolfe County, Hyden, Hazard and Knott County, but remained only at Hazard after his initial surgery to lighten his workload and help him recover.

Rice said her husband always loved the pharmacy profession. He went to pharmacy school in Birmingham, Ala. and worked at pharmacies in Williamsburg, and then for the Christian Health Center in Corbin before signing on full-time to be a pharmacist with Forcht Pharmacy.

“Everybody at those nursing homes, even half the patients, loved him to death,” Rice said. “I was getting texts from people from all around that were nursing home people and they were told he was having surgery and they were just telling me they were praying for him. It was amazing.”

“We had over 500 people at the visitation for his funeral. People just really loved Gary.”