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Rick Morey-Wolfe, Board Secretary and Founding Member
Rick is a native of Tucson, attended Canyon Del Oro High School. Rick attended his first pride picnic in Tucson in 1989. He has always been interested in the history of the queer experience around the world. As a person who follows the news and politics closely, he learned that history is destined to repeat itself if there is no activism and growth.
Rick had a rocky young adulthood; he says his internalized homophobia turned into self-destructive behavior. This experience has given him a unique education and insight of the human condition. He feels an obligation to pass on this knowledge to younger people.
He believes in the value of community, and forgiveness. Supporting those who need a hand to stand back up is the only way people can better themselves. This drives he desire to fundraise and promote the Tucson queer community and all the beauty it holds.
He met his husband, Shawn Graby in 2009 and married in 2014.
He is a producer of multiple events that entertain and raise funds for multiple organizations.
After being asked to speak at a Stonewall 50 event he began collaborating and helped to create Tucson Queerstory. As a founder of the organization Rick has been able to help bring together what he calls, “one of the most important organizations in Tucson’s history. Tucson has such a long queer history, that needs to be preserved and displayed, people need to know how Tucson became a flash point in the history of queer rights and protections in the country.”
Rick had a rocky young adulthood; he says his internalized homophobia turned into self-destructive behavior. This experience has given him a unique education and insight of the human condition. He feels an obligation to pass on this knowledge to younger people.
He believes in the value of community, and forgiveness. Supporting those who need a hand to stand back up is the only way people can better themselves. This drives he desire to fundraise and promote the Tucson queer community and all the beauty it holds.
He met his husband, Shawn Graby in 2009 and married in 2014.
He is a producer of multiple events that entertain and raise funds for multiple organizations.
After being asked to speak at a Stonewall 50 event he began collaborating and helped to create Tucson Queerstory. As a founder of the organization Rick has been able to help bring together what he calls, “one of the most important organizations in Tucson’s history. Tucson has such a long queer history, that needs to be preserved and displayed, people need to know how Tucson became a flash point in the history of queer rights and protections in the country.”
Shawn Graby, Events Director and Founding Member
Shawn is from central Pennsylvania, near Hershey. He attended Palmyra High School and attended the Penn College of Technology. He made his way to Tucson in 2006 to looking for a place that he could find himself and start a new life.
Shawn made fast friends in the Tucson queer community, finding his way to be his authentic self. He began helping SAAF raise money at Jell-O, and TIHAN.
He has developed a chosen family and considers Tucson his home. He met his husband Rick Morey-Wolfe in 2009 and married in 2014.
He currently works in the medical device field, helps to produce shows and fundraisers.
He says that getting involved with Tucson Queerstory is teaching him how important our history is, and that he belongs to a community that is a pivotal part of the Tucson as a whole.
Chris Jones, Founding Member
Chris Jones, RDCS, AE, PE. Graduated from Bisbee HS and then attended UofA. Chris has spent her entire career in health care. She grew up in Iowa, California, Missouri and Arizona at a time when “don’t say gay” was the norm and not even a question! Looking for an opportunity to forward gay rights, she joined the Tucson Lesbian Gay Alliance in the late 1970’s. After serving as co-chair for 6 years life called in other responsibilities.
She joined Tucson Queerstory in 2019 believing wholeheartedly in the preservation of our history and never going back to a time where diversity was hidden. Today’s conservative agenda seeks to illegally takeaway our hard fought rights. She hopes you will find your calling in this vital movement. She currently serves as a liaison and board member of Tucson Pride.
She joined Tucson Queerstory in 2019 believing wholeheartedly in the preservation of our history and never going back to a time where diversity was hidden. Today’s conservative agenda seeks to illegally takeaway our hard fought rights. She hopes you will find your calling in this vital movement. She currently serves as a liaison and board member of Tucson Pride.
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Daniel Schimek, Board Treasurer
Danny is originally from Miami, Florida. He moved to Las Vegas with his family in 2003. After dealing with the grind of the Vegas graveyard life, he moved to Tucson in 2008. He remained in our community until 2013, when he has to return to Vegas to care for his ailing mother. Danny returned to Tucson in 2023, returning to the close-knit community and his second (chosen) family... the place that felt like home to him.
Danny received his Accounting Degree in 2020, finishing his coursework two days before the world shut down for COVID. He had a lot of time to think about his future and how he wanted to spend it, leading to his eventual return to Tucson. Upon his arrival, he began volunteering at a local non-profit, where he calls Bingo three times a week.
Danny has also recently joined Tucson Queerstory as our Treasurer, putting that Accounting Degree to good use! Both of his volunteer positions seem to be deep-rooted in numbers... bingo balls and calculations are his life these days.
Danny feels that the preservation of our community's past is important to the landscape of our future. You can't plan the future without knowing and learning from the past. TQS is a vital part of that history, with a vast collection of memorabilia and testimonials, that can be used as building blocks to the future of the Tucson Queer Community.
Natalie Perry, Outreach Director and Founding Member
Natalie has been actively involved in the Tucson LGBTQ+ community for over 40 years. As a member of the Tucson Lesbian Gay Pride Committee (TLGPC) in the 80's she helped fundraise and produce gay pride week, with activities at each gay bar and then culminating in the pride picnics at Himmel Park.
She was a founding member of Tucson AIDS Project (TAP) and the Shanti Foundation of Tucson and served as Shanti's director for several years.
Natalie is currently a founding member of Tucson Queerstory (TQS) and is again active in preserving and archiving Tucson's LGBTQ+ history and sharing it with the community, when the opportunities arise.
Randy Pease, Board President and Founding Member
Randy Pease has worn many education hats - teacher, curriculum specialist, National Science Foundation researcher, and author. As a participant in the Tucson LGBTQ+ community since his arrival in Tucson, 1979, where he attended and graduated from the University of Arizona.
His first volunteer position started in the eighties with the Tucson AIDS Project. Later, he volunteered with Wingspan, manned phones, and founded the first Gay and Lesbian Teacher Support group. He was an active member of St. Francis reconciling congregation and participated in many LGBTQ programs. In the nineties, he coordinated Team Arizona (Gay Olympics) events between Tucson and Phoenix. It was at that time he participated and volunteered with The Experience, Inc. empowering LGBTQ+ and their straight allies advocating 'coming out' in Tucson and Phoenix.
Most recently Randy's interest has been in preserving history, stories, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ+) community. In 2019, along with two others, he founded Tucson Queerstory (TQS). Members collect, preserve, exhibit, celebrate, and make accessible to the public individual and group stories, materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of a diverse LGBTQ history, its people, culture, and arts. Individuals also have an opportunity to share and record their recollections with TQS, their experiences, which are then achieved and used in presentations and celebrations.
John Barnes, Board Vice President
John has made Tucson his home since the early 80’s. He received his BA degree from the U of A, and later getting his Masters in counseling for grief and loss from Prescott College.
He was the first Senior Case manager for the Tucson Aids Project
(before it became SAAF) in the 1990s after Pima Health Systems finally allowed our clients to receive services. Those times were hard but showed us how determined the gay community was to fight for our rights. He also worked as a hospice counselor, built strawbale houses and retired after 16 years from Pima Council on Aging as a Help line specialist.
John feels that securing the stories of the gay community is vital. Recording and remembering our struggles and triumphs of the past helps benefit the new generations with the rights and privileges we fought for, that is our goal.
Jimmer O'Rourke, TQS Events Photographer & Social Media
Jim originally hails from Randolph New Jersey, about an hour outside of Manhattan New York City. O’Rourke arrived in Tucson in 1989, and became involved with Desert Voices, Reveille Men’s Chorus as well as completing a Shanti Training with Executive Director Natalie Perry in 1990. O’Rourke’s photography has been published in: The Miami Herald, Island News, The Keynoter, Solaris Hill, and The Key West Citizen. Jim earned a BFA in Photography from The University of Arizona and is a full time Research Coordinator in The Department of Neurology at University of Arizona Health Sciences. In his spare time, he can be found photographing various events in the Tucson area.
Jim’s Facebook page: Photography by James Dillon O’Rourke and Web Site: www.jims-lens.com
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