Ron Rice created Hawaiian Tropic in 1969, using a $500 loan from his father to get the chevalier started. In his Murray, Kentucky garage, he prepared the first batch of sunscreen in a metal garbage can and bottled it.

Rice became the largest private maker of sun care products in the United States after a quick rise to prominence, until Hawaiian Tropic was purchased by Playtex Products, Inc. in May 2007.

Playtex is now the leading maker of sun care products in the Western Hemisphere, thanks to Hawaiian Tropic and Playtex’s other sun care brand, Banana Boat. Playtex Products was bought by Energizer Holdings Inc. for $1.9 billion shortly after buying Hawaiian Tropic.

Meet Ron Rice’s Child Sterling Rice

In July of 1990, Sterling was born. Darcy LaPier is her mother, and Ron Rice, the proprietor of The Hawaiian Tropics suntan products firm and beauty pageants, is her father. Darcy’s mother married Jean-Claude Van Damme, who became her stepfather. Brian Snodgrass is the current stepfather.

Sterling’s most significant work and the biggest break were with Troy Cory in his television/stage show, “The Troy Cory Evening Show” (1974–2008), aka The Troy Cory Show, when she appeared as yet another first performer in the Peoples Republic of China in 2004.

On a performance tour around China, her father Ron Rice flew there with his troupe of Hawaiian Tropic girls for The Troy Cory Show in Shanghai, China, and nearby towns.