The awards for 2009 were presented at our Spring Awards Luncheon on March 27th, 2010. Click on the award for video of the event and details on our award recipients.
The Call for Nominations for the NTAUUS Recognition Awards continues for 2011.
Nominations may be submitted by individuals or congregations, and there are no requirements of
age or length of membership of nominees.
There will three categories of awards, for service by ministers, lay
staff members, and volunteers. The Robert Raible Award honors the
twenty-two year ministry at First Unitarian by the beloved ‘Daddy Bob,’ the
Ruth Clark Award recognizes the many years of dedicated service by the
first paid DRE in the Southwest Conference, and the Marty Robinson
Award commemorates the decades of wide-ranging contributions of this
treasured volunteer and member.
Details on these three remarkable individuals can be found below.
Please consider whom you would like to nominate, and click here to download a PDF of this announcement to display on your bulletin boards and in your newsletters.
Please click here to download the required nomination form and complete program details.
We have named our recognition awards after three pioneers from our North Texas UU history.
The Rev. Robert Jules Raible was minister of First Unitarian Church
of Dallas from 1942 until 1964. When he arrived in Dallas, the
congregation had 175 members and was meeting in rented space; five
years later, they had purchased land on Preston Road and moved into
their current home. By the end of his tenure, three building phases had
been completed, with the new sanctuary completed in time for his
retirement.
"Daddy Bob," as he was affectionally known, had "a twinkle in his
eyes and a warm tone in his voice that made everyone he met feel
special," according to Elaine Wildman, whose wedding ceremony he
performed in 1955. He was especially good at persuading all to be
involved, but did not hesitate to send someone to another church if our
theology was not a good fit. When a person would announce their desire
to join, he would first ask, "Have you been to XYZ Church?" He also
worked for social justice in conjunction with Temple Emmanu-el at a
time when there were few liberal voices in the area, and publicly
pressured the Dallas school board to move ahead with desegregation.
Though he was not large physically, his legacy is not minor: he
helped build First Unitarian into a strong and viable institution as well as
starting the congregations in Oak Cliff, Denton, and Fort Worth. He
even maneuvered to have new congregations accepted chronologically
instead of alphabetically so that Oak Cliff, after the 1961 merger, would
be the first chartered by the Unitarian Universalist Association. Raible
Place is appropriately named in his honor, as it was the first integrated
apartment complex in the North Texas area and the national ideal for the
HUD program that helped us build this affordable housing project. Its
sale in 2001 provided the endowment which continues to today help
build our congregations.
It is with this history that we name the NTAUUS ministry award
for Daddy Bob, who did so much to establish our faith institution in
North Texas.
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