ROBERT E. NAGLE ’51

ROBERT E. NAGLE, an attorney who specialized in labor law, died Aug. 16, 2014. He was 84. A member of Sigma Nu, he received his degree with high distinction in history. After receiving his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and his LL.M. from Georgetown University, he served as a legal officer in the U.S. Navy. After leaving the Navy, he began a career in government service that spanned more than two decades. Most of his work targeted the protection of the rights, health, and safety of American workers. This included more than a decade at the U.S. Department of Labor. During the Kennedy administration he served as a special counsel to the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. He later was associate counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, where he was involved in developing and drafting the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) and the Coal Mine Safety Act of 1969. From 1971 to 1974 he was general counsel to the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, where he helped develop and draft the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). He was in private practice from 1974 to 1979. From 1979 to 1982 he was executive director of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. From 1982 until his death, he served as an arbitrator and mediator in employee benefits and labor disputes, and from 1985 until his death he served as neutral trustee and chairman of two multi-employer pension and health benefit funds. His wife, Ronna Paolicchi Nagle, predeceased him. Survivors include three children, including Robert E. Nagle III ’81; three grandchildren; and two brothers.