Robert Nagle, a driving force behind the drafting and eventual enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), passed away on August 16, 2014, at the age of 84. ERISA is the federal legislation that millions of seniors rely on for pension protection. Mr. Nagle, as a general counsel for the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, played a key role in drafting sections of ERISA. He later carried out ERISA’s insurance program as Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from 1979 to 1982.
He worked closely with the late Michael S. Gordon, another major player in the passage of ERISA and who was legislative counsel to the Association of BellTel Retirees Inc. Mr. Nagle was a Michael S. Gordon Fellow at the Pension Rights Center.
Norman Stein, the Pension Rights Center’s policy advisor said, “There were few people in our field as knowledgeable or as wise as Bob, and no one ever had a kinder heart. 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.”