The Dallas Historical Society‘s annual awards for excellence luncheon invariably attracts a who’s who of the region. And the 2023 edition, held at the Fairmont Hotel on Friday, November 17, kept the tradition going strong.
While many of the event’s 565 attendees gathered for a reception outside the hotel’s International Ballroom — among them R. Gerald Turner, Dr. Carine Feyten, Tom Leppert, Don Clampitt, Tom Dunning, Gail Thomas, Dale Petroskey and Ruben Esquivel — a few of the day’s guests were in the midst of creating some private history of their own.
Off in a ground-floor nook near the Fairmont’s Ross Avenue entrance, for example, Crayton Webb was locked in a tete-a-tete with Mimi Sterling, the recently resigned CEO of The Family Place. Mimi “has a lot of options,” Crayton explained later. “She’s deciding whether to stay in non-profits or in the private sector.”
Upstairs, meantime, Calvert Collins-Bratton swept into the reception area, part of a family delegation that was serving as the luncheon’s honorary chairs. Calvert, who’d just been named Chief Relationship Officer at Communities Foundation of Texas, said she’d be “basically backfilling” Monica Christopher, who previously held the position. Calvert had been emailed about the job by CFT President and CEO Wayne White, she disclosed, and an agreement was reached after “many meetings.”
Newly renamed the Dallas History Makers Awards for Excellence Luncheon — it used to be just called the Awards for Excellence Luncheon — the programmed event began at 11:40 a.m. with a welcome by emcee Stewart H. Thomas and an invocation by Brandy McDonald of Trinity Dallas. Stewart invited guests to “please feel free to sip silently your soup” — the Champagne Brie En Croute kicked off the lunch menu, followed by Rolled Stuffed Chicken and Vanilla Bean Cheesecake or a Chocolate Delight — as the Dick Collins family took the stage as honorary chairs.
With Dick serving as spokesman for Calvert and Vince Bratton and Genevieve Collins-DeCarme and Dwight DeCarme, the family patriarch began by saying his forebears had come to Texas in 1846. He continued in a light-hearted vein, saying, “We have a responsibility as a city of wheelers and dealers, as exhibited by J.R. Ewing [in the “Dallas” TV show]. And it’s all true! They changed the names to protect the guilty! Many of them are my friends.”
Then he added, “Understanding the successes and failures of the past are the key to the future.”
Following a video introduced by DHS Executive Director Karl Chiao, it was time for luncheon Co-Chairs Laura Woodall and Daniel Murchison to oversee the presentation of the awards. Selected for their contribution to the quality of life in Dallas in multiple categories, the award recipients (prefaced by their categories) were:
- Arts Leadership: Gail Sachson. The arts planner, organizer, fundraiser, collector, historian and educator told attendees that because many more galleries have opened locally, today’s Dallasites “don’t have to leave to go to New York or California for art — it’s coming to us!”
- Creative Arts: Lyric Stage. Steven Jones, founding producer of the musical theater company that performs at the historic Majestic Theater, said the downtown venue “is a place where local Dallas performers can be able to come and work together in a beautiful theater.”
- Education: Dr. Carine Feyten. Citing Texas Woman’s University’s relationships with the Dallas Regional Chamber and the business community, the TWU chancellor said, “When different perspectives are brought to the table, you look at issues differently.”
- History: Talmage Boston. The attorney and author reminded guests how a “knowledge of politics can be used and applied to the future.”
- Humanities: Friends of Aldredge House. Melanie Vanlandingham and Marianne Howells accepted the award for the house, a “living example of history and [a] crown jewel of Swiss Avenue.”
- Jubilee History Maker: Michael Boone. Accepting the award “embodying community spirit and civic leadership,” the noted attorney said, “The spirit of the people is disclosed by the education” of its children.
- Sports Leadership: Brad Sham. Brad, the voice of the Dallas Cowboys football team for more than four decades, said, “If you don’t know what came before, you can’t possibly appreciate the things that are happening now.”
- Volunteer Community Leadership: Tori Mannes. The president and CEO of Dallas’ ChildCareGroup said, “We can accomplish so much more together than we ever could alone.”
- DHS Benefactor of the Year: Stan Graff. Stan, a lead sponsor of the Alamo diorama at the Hall of State at Fair Park, said, “One of the first books I read on my own was ‘Remember the Alamo’ — about the fight for liberty, the fight for Texas freedom.”
To close out the luncheon, Stewart led everyone in “The A.C. Greene Traditional Farewell Toast.” He first asked everyone who’d been born in Dallas to stand, and then all who’d been born in Texas to rise as well. Then, as guests hoisted their champagne flutes high, Stewart intoned, “We toast the rest of you — who were smart enough to move here as fast as you could!”
Postscript: Several days after the event, the festivities turned to frustration for “a few” luncheon guests who’d left their cars with the Fairmont valet staff. Official-looking citations (complete with vehicle photos) arrived in the mail saying they owed $45 fines, since their cars had been “parked on private property” illegally. Fortunately, Fairmont management soon intervened and said to disregard the notices, explaining to guests that a “faulty automated ticketing system” was to blame and apologizing for the inconvenience.
* Photo credit: Rob Wythe/Wythe Portrait Studio