A tribute to retirement security hero Bob Nagle

WASHINGTON – The Pension Rights Center pays tribute to a true retirement security hero, Robert E. Nagle, who died at his home at the age of 84 on Saturday, August 16, 2014. As General Counsel of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Bob was responsible for crafting and securing passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the seminal law that safeguards retirement protections for American workers and retirees. Later, as Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from 1979 to 1982, he implemented the law’s insurance program.

In recent years, Bob was a lawyer in private practice, an arbitrator, a neutral trustee for two mining industry pension and health funds, a participant in the Pension Rights Center’s Conversation on Coverage, and a Michael S. Gordon Fellow at the Center. “As a Fellow, Bob provided invaluable advice on numerous legal and policy issues. He was an amazing person, extraordinarily knowledgeable, wonderfully wise, and incredibly generous with his time. He was loved and admired by all,” said Center Director Karen Ferguson.

“There were few people in our field as knowledgeable or as wise as Bob, and no one ever had a kinder heart,” says Norman Stein, the Center’s Senior Policy Advisor and professor at Drexel School of Law. “He was a gentle man and a good man in every sense of those words and will be deeply missed by all who had the very great privilege of working with him. It’s a loss personally and a loss to the whole retirement community.”

Bob’s family is planning a memorial service. Information about the service, and about a reception and Fund honoring Bob, will be posted on the Center’s Fellows page as soon as it is available. 

See Also: 

PBGC Pays Homage to Former Executive Director and Retirement Security Advocate

Pension law, regulation pioneer Robert Nagle dead at 84

Robert Nagle, an architect of ERISA, dies at 84