Daniel Joseph Nerbonne died suddenly at home in Houston on December 31, 2018. He was 61 years old. Dan was born February 2, 1957, in Brockton, Massachusetts, to John A. Nerbonne and Kathleen T. Nerbonne (Joyce). The fourth of seven children and the second of four sons, Dan attended Boston College High School, an all-boys Jesuit school, and graduated in 1975. He then enrolled at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the civil engineering program. While there, he met the love of his life, Margaret (Peggy) Nerbonne. Following a brief courtship, they married on June 25, 1977, at St. Philip’s Church in Grafton, Massachusetts before friends and family. On January 9, 1978, and while Dan was still in college, Dan and Peggy welcomed their first child, Christopher.
Dan graduated in 1979 and accepted a position as an engineer with Texaco in Houston. Peggy was pregnant with their second child, Matthew, when the family relocated to Houston. Matt joined the family on February 28, 1980. The family did not stay in Houston for long. Texaco relocated Dan to Hobbs, New Mexico in 1981 to provide him with field experience working on the Tex-New Mex pipeline system. Dan and Peg made many life-long friends from among his colleagues and coworkers in Hobbs. Their third child, Andrea, was born December 27, 1983. Dan loved helping the boys with Pinewood Derby cars, coaching soccer (about which he knew nothing) and baseball, and taking his kids camping near Ruidoso and other points in New Mexico.
Dan did not expect to stay in Hobbs long, but the collapse of the oil market coupled with a series of business disasters that befell Texaco ended any hope of a quick reassignment. They would remain in Hobbs for nine years.
Life continued unremarkably for several years until Dan transferred again to Denver to assume a new role in business development at Texaco Trading and Transportation, Inc. (TTTI) in the summer of 1990. While in Denver, Dan really brought his love of skiing to his children. During the winter, he would pack a lunch in his favorite cooler and drive the kids up to Copper Mountain to ski practically every weekend. We all loved going with him. He made it to as many of the ball games, recitals, and other events as he could. He taught us how to drive a stick shift, start it on a hill, and learn how to start it by popping the clutch.
A series of corporate mergers, joint ventures, and divestitures among the major oil companies led to Dan returning to Houston to join Shell Pipeline in 1998 as Shell proceeded with divesting most of its pipeline assets. During this time at Shell, Dan met Greg Armstrong and Harry Pefanis, the founders of Plains All American Pipeline. Plains experienced tremendous growth while it actively and aggressively acquired crude oil pipeline and storage assets. Soon thereafter, Plains offered Dan a position as Vice President – Engineering, overseeing the growing engineering and integrity groups at Plains, a role he held at levels of increasing responsibility from 2005 until his death.
By any measure, Dan enjoyed tremendous professional success during the course of his nearly forty-year-long career. He had begun preparations to take a step back from his day-to-day responsibilities as Executive Vice President – Engineering and Operations as he started to slowly unwind his role and prepare for retirement. Unfortunately, time ran out before he could complete his plan. If you asked Dan for the secret to his success, he would tell you it was no secret at all. Hard work, loyalty, discipline, and dedication created their own opportunities for him.
Dan loved spending time with his children and grandchildren, and he truly enjoyed traveling and having new experiences. In the last year, Dan brought all of his grandchildren to Disney World and he enjoyed over two weeks in Europe touring Italy and Switzerland with Peggy. Over the past several years, Dan and Peggy spent most weekends at their retreat on Galveston Island listening to the waves and watching the sunset. He was an extremely generous man; a loving son, brother, and husband, and a wonderful father, grandfather, and mentor. He will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by his family and friends.
Dan is survived by his wife, Peggy, their three children, Chris (Maris), Matt (Bonnie), and Andrea (Cory Wilson), seven grandchildren, Alaina, Noelle, Emily, Collin, Lincoln, Amelia and Evelyn, his sisters Mary (Jim Ligas), Jeanne (Andreas Burkhalter), and Susan, and brothers John (Ellen), Michael, and Paul (Kasanu Patthana), and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and their children. Dan is predeceased by his parents, John and Kathleen.
The viewing and service will be held January 5, 2019, at 2:00 pm at Bradshaw Carter Funeral Home, 1734 W Alabama, Houston, TX 77098. Should anyone desire, memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital