Robert Emanuel

Robert L. "Bob" Emanuel of Raleigh died September 8, 2023. He was born August 28, 1926, in the family home of his parents, Judah L. and Regina E. Emanuel where he continued to live.

He was a product of Raleigh's public and private schools and, following graduation in 1943, he enrolled in a special curriculum called the V-12 Navy College Training Program at the University in Chapel Hill, which was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II. He was commissioned an Ensign and was assigned as a "small boat officer" on the USS Vermillion. When he returned stateside, Bob earned the rank of Lieutenant and was assigned to the Officer Selection Division of the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington until his release from active duty in 1947.

After his stint in the Navy, Bob re-entered UNC-Chapel Hill and obtained a law degree in 1951. He joined his father's law firm with interim employment in the NC Attorney General's Office and later resumed his work with the Emanuel Law Firm. Over time, his experience with routine duties gradually evolved into more substantive matters including an engagement as Solicitor (prosecutor) in the Cary Town Recorder's Court. His law practice included general business matters, civil litigation, and complex insurance issues on behalf of some of the nation's largest insurers.

As the firm grew, and especially after his father's death, Bob was faced with a heavier workload and engaged a series of associates with varied talents and disciplines including one, Stephen Dunn, who was the son of a former law school classmate. Dunn's acquisition helped secure and enhance the law firm and he became a partner in Emanuel and Dunn.

In the course of his career, Bob participated in various civic and professional affairs, including service as Chairman of the Judicial Selection Committee of the NC Bar Association, President of the Wake County Family Service, and President of the Wake County Cerebral Palsy and the local American Red Cross.

Bob counted as his greatest good fortune to reconnect with Suzanne NeSmith generations after their youthful infatuation and her subsequent divorce from an earlier marriage. They married in 2008 and he often told others that his marriage was the undisputable and complete fulfillment of all that he ever aspired to.

Bob was a thoughtful, soft-spoken gentleman who wrote elegantly and well. His legal briefs were a study of carefully chosen and well-articulated arguments that left little doubt as to the direct manner in which he sought truth through the law. His writing ability and powers of description were honed early on and deployed in the Navy. There he kept a detailed diary of his experiences as a young man on a passage through the Panama Canal and a tour of parts of South America, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Even nearly 80 years later, his accounts are a delight to read.

He was quietly proud of his Jewish heritage through his father, whom he greatly respected for his courage and unequivocal convictions, even for unpopular causes. Bob sought to emulate him, although he never considered his own accomplishments quite as worthy. He aspired to his father's goals as recited at Judah Emanuel's funeral (1894-1968) in the poem "My Symphony," by William Henry Channing, which his father kept in his desk. It is emblematic of his son, Bob, as well:

To live content with small means;
To seek elegance rather than luxury, and
Refinement rather than fashion;
To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich;

To listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart;
To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely and
Await occasions, hurry never;
In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is my symphony.

Bob avoided pretense and asked that there be no formal funeral ceremony but that he be returned to his favored reverie, the seashore. In his own words

"I would like to become part of the salt marsh. Return me to those waters, to the grasses and the tidal lands where there is no such thing as death, only the cycles of life. Make my marker a stand of core grass. Watch it wave in the breeze. See how it catches the light and think of me."

He is survived by his wife, Suzanne; his niece, Jane Whitehill of New York City; nephew, Dr. Richard Whitehill of Charlottesville, VA; niece Ann Whitehill (Cioffi) of Barrington, NH; nephew, Jonathan Kovach, Jr. of Raleigh, NC; six great-nephews; and his wife Suzanne's six extraordinary grandchildren, to whom he was devoted.

To honor Bob's wishes, there will be no service but a private family celebration of his life at a later date. In lieu of flowers, consider committing to an act of kindness in memory of Bob or a gift to a charity of your choice.