John Rice Irwin (born December 11, 1930) is an American cultural historian, and founder of the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee.Rice was born in Union County, Tennessee, but while still an infant his family moved twice, and would eventually permanently reside on a farm near Norris, Tennessee. He served in the US Army infantry in the early 1940s, and later would complete his bachelor's degree at Lincoln Memorial University.