Robert Barton Rice was born November 22, 1900 in Massachusetts. Before graduating in 1919 from Springfield Technical High School (Massachusetts), Barton had already acquired engineering experience at the Van Norman Machine Tool Company. He continued his employment in the engineering field during his college years, graduating from Tufts College Engineering School, (Massachusetts), earning, in 1926, a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Enginnering. He received an A.M. degree from Columbia University, (New York), later returning to Tufts College, in 1936, for a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering.

In 1930, Rice served as an independent engineering consultant to several corporations while instructing at the Pratt Institute (New York), the Wyomissing Polytechnical Institute (Pennsylvania), and the New College of Engineering (New Jersey). By 1938, Professor Rice headed the Experimental Engineering Department in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State College. He taught undergraduate courses in thermodynamics, hydraulics, aircraft internal combustion engines, and graduate courses in internal combustion engine design and mechanical engineering research. In addition to teaching, he was responsible for the designing of the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, procuring and testing equipment, as well as supervising, organizing, and developing the laboratories for heating, ventilation, steam power, metallurgy, hydraulics, aeronautics, internal combustion engines and associated studies. During World War II, Rice directed the Naval Diesel School, a designated North Carolina State College training facility for national defense.

While teaching at North Carolina State College in 1950, Rice and two partners formed Enginerring Development Associates, a corporation offering services in design, construction, supervision, and consultation in many branches of engineering and architecture. Rice's practice included Traveler's Insurance, Textile Manufacturing Company, Diesel Engine Manufacturers Assocation, Town of Tarboro, North Carolina, New Bern, North Carolina, and Bureau of Ships, United States Navy. Consulting work consisted of inspecting, designing, constructing, administering, and installing power plants, engine designs, and heating and air conditioning systems.

Before his retirement in 1971, Robert Barton Rice headed numerous committees, chaired engineering societies, and was a member of educational and engineering clubs. He received, in 1972, the distinguished service certificate frmo the Naitonal Council of Engineering Examiners. At the Smithsonian Institute, within the National Museum of History and Technology (Washington, D.C.), Rice deposited archival materials in collections relating to the history and advancements of mechanical engineering professions. After more than twenty-five years on the faculty at North Carolina State University and devoting his life to engineering, Rice died on March 4, 1976 at the age of seventy-five.