A lifetime of service
Robert Emery and Cece Cox were resplendent in white as grand marshals of the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, outshining the protesters who showed up 2022 BTD Kuchling Humanitarian award honors Robert Emery’s involvement in Dallas’ LGBTQ culture, history and life DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com Robert Emery, this year’s recipient of Black Tie Dinner’s Raymond Kuchling Humanitarian Award, began his career of volunteerism with the Turtle Creek Chorale and along the way has worked to preserve Dallas LGBTQ history, enhance the city’s cultural landscape and make North Texas a safer place for community members to age in.
Emery’s entry into the community was as a member of the chorale. He joined in 1988 during the depths of the AIDS crisis. He said that while he enjoyed the meteoric rise of the chorale and its leader Tim Seelig, their success had a price. “Being a gay men’s chorus put us at the center of the [HIV/AIDS] crisis,” Emery said. “There was a time we sang at a funeral every weekend.” But not being one to dwell on the negative, he quickly turned to positive events. “We traveled to Europe,” he said of the chorale. “We performed at Carnegie Hall.” And, while he is no longer singing with TCC, Emery’s most recent connection with the group was chairing the chorale’s first Rhapsody fundraiser, which featured Idina Menzel performing at an event at the Statler Hotel.
That event was, at the time, the 40-year-old organization’s most successful. Robert Emery Emery is no stranger to Black Tie Dinner, either.
In 2005 and 2006, he served on its board as producer of the show. He and his committee brought in Lily Tomlin, Sharon Stone, Geena Davis and Alan Cumming. “Stone upped our fundraising by about $99,000,”
