Todd Ackerman does a fine job covering the Texas Medical Center for the Chronicle and, in this Sunday Chronicle article, profiles Dan Duncan (previous posts here), chairman of Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners, LP and the leading philanthropist to Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center.
Duncan’s life is a quintessential Houston success story, a hard-working, self-made man who started his first company with $10,000 and a trailer-truck and, after working for a small independent oil and gas company, started Enterprise in 1968 and built it into a $15 billion company that is one of the two largest companies in the nation that transports natural gas between exploration and end-use. As Ackerman’s profile points out, that task has not always been easy — such as during the mid-1980’s when the bottom fell out of the natural gas market — but Duncan perservered and was ultimately rewarded for his vision and hard work. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fellow.