David French Mackie

Our beloved David French Mackie, surely one of the kindest, most loving, hardest trying, brilliantly intelligent, fun, sparkling personalities ever to be given the gift of life, passed away on Monday, the 14th of August. David gallantly and with great determination and strong family and medical support survived a struggle with cancer lasting nearly eleven years.

David was born in Kansas City on the 13th of April 1937. He was the son of David Charles Mackie (1901-1972) and Virginia French Mackie (1900-2005), from whom he inherited not only his brilliant mind, but his incredible strength. She was still teaching music to professional musicians when she fell and broke her leg at 104 years of age. David grew up in Kansas City, graduated Valedictorian of his class at Pembroke-Country Day school and then from Yale College, cum laude, in 1959. Upon his graduation, David was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Navy where he served on active duty until the fall of 1961. He looked back on the influence he received from his years in the Navy with great pride and satisfaction.

After his military service, David graduated from Yale Law School, cum laude, in 1964. He joined the San Francisco law firm Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, became a member of the Bar of California (he would not approve of our telling you that he tutored now California governor, Jerry Brown, in the fine art of passing the California Bar Exam) and began a legal and business career in the Federal administrative law and public utility business.

In 1970, at the invitation of Travis Petty, his best and most highly respected corporate mentor, David joined the executive ranks of the El Paso Natural Gas Company in El Paso and then in Houston. He retired from The El Paso Company as Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 1983. In 1984, David joined the management of Transco Energy Company. He retired from Transco as President and COO of Transco Gas Company in 1992.

Thereafter, David began a challenging and highly successful career as an independent consultant and venture capital investor in the United States and Canada. He advised Shell Oil, Mobil Oil, Pan Energy, Merrill, Lynch and Pacific Gas & Electric. His finest achievement was the founding of AltaGas Ltd in Calgary, Alberta in 1994 with his longtime friend and most highly respected business associate David W. Cornhill. Their company has grown into an energy business with an enterprise value of about C$10 Billion on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In 1962, David married Mary Lamora Harrison of Honolulu and they adopted three children, Ashley (a loyal and loving daughter to this day), Ian and Blair. In 1971, David married Stephanie Smith of Houston. She brought two children Charles and Katherine into the marriage and then in 1972 they had a son David Smith Mackie.

Then at the Transco Energy Company David set his eyes on the love of his life Susan Kemp Chism. They were married in the bluebonnets of their beloved Deer Creek Farm in Brenham on the 22nd of April 1989, after a long friendship in a world with few women in the corporate executive offices. Their close friend, the late Suzanne Nelms of Houston, took credit for convincing Chairman of the Board Jack Bowen that their marriage was fully appropriate in this day and age. Through the marriage, David acquired two very special daughters Sarah Chism Barr and Emily Chism Barker, M.D. and was deeply involved in their upbringing and the people they have become. Without his influence our lives would have been completely different, and not nearly so full and satisfying. Now there are six Grandchildren, Jack and Patrick Barr of College Station and Lily, Caroline, Colin and Madeleine Barker.

David and Susan have lived a long, rich and very full life together in Houston, Brenham, Santa Fe, Ruidoso, Corona del Mar, and New York City. Their pursuit of the highs and lows and the thrills of horse racing and breeding have defined where they lived later in life. One of the highlights of their lives was winning the All American Futurity in Ruidoso with their beloved filly, Falling In LoveAgain. In recent years, David’s reigniting of his long friendship with Will Farish and racing and breeding Thoroughbreds with Will has certainly been among the most treasured experiences of his life. Their world-class black stallion Honor Code won several Grade I Stakes races, including the Metropolitan Mile at Belmont Park and the Whitney at Saratoga.

David and Susan would like to acknowledge several special friends of long standing: Ray Clevenger of Washington, D.C., John Ducato of Sedona, Jack Brooks of Oklahoma City, Scott Wells of Oklahoma City, Rick Gordon of Houston and the late Frank Nelms of Houston.

The many doctors who shepherded David through his long fight to hold onto his wonderful life are certainly headed by Eric Bernicker, M.D., to whom we owe an extra decade of that life full to the brim of incredibly valuable experiences. More recently the many fine doctors at Houston Methodist who rallied to help includes a list way too long for these pages, but we must mention the Hematology/Oncology group at Methodist Hospital, headed by Sai Ravi Pingali, M.D., and Swaminathan Iyer, M.D.; from the Cardiology Staff, including Doctors Estep, Bhimaraj, Park, Hussain, Chand, and Al-Saadi; from the Nephrology staff, Dr Olivera, Jr., Dr. Nguyen, Dr. Kagan; from the Pulmonary staff, Dr. Colomer, Dr. Connolly, Dr. Murthy. A special thanks goes also for thirty years of loving care from Jeannette Greer-Brumbaugh, M.D.

Friends are cordially invited to gather and share remembrances of David with the family from half-past five o’clock until half-past seven o’clock in the evening on Tuesday, the 22nd of August at the River Oaks Country Club, 1600 River Oaks Boulevard in Houston.

The family will gather for a private funeral service at a later date.

In lieu of the customary remembrances, the family requests that friends consider making a memorial contribution in honor of David to the Houston Methodist Hospital’s Oncology Partners or DeBakey Cardiology Associates.

Arrangements under the direction of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons Funeral Directors, Houston, TX.