Copano Energy LLC, Houston, (Nasdaq: CPNO) reports that chairman and chief executive John R. Eckel Jr. has passed away at age 58 on Nov. 13. Eckel had been on a medical leave since Nov. 4 and recently suffered liver failure.

Eckel founded Copano Energy in 1992 and served as president and CEO until April 2003, when he became chairman and CEO.

Prior to Copano, Eckel worked for various energy drilling, service and E&P companies, including E&P company Live Oak Reserves Inc., which he founded in 1986. Before joining the energy sector, Eckel was named assistant vice president, energy finance, for Lehman Brothers in 1978, a company he had joined the previous year as an associate in corporate finance.

Before Lehman Brothers, he was an investment analyst and then assistant director of investments (energy and minerals) for securities investment department of The Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York.

Eckel also was a board member of the Texas Pipeline Association.

While at Copano, the company grew from a single 23-mile pipeline to a successful midstream natural gas company with more than 6,000 miles of pipeline and seven processing plants in Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and Louisiana. Copano was the first midstream company to trade publicly as a limited liability company.

R. Bruce Northcutt has been named CEO. He was chief operating officer and remains president.

William L. Thacker has been named chairman. He has been on the board since the company's initial public offering.

Northcutt says, “All of us at Copano Energy are greatly saddened by John's death. John was a friend and a mentor to many at Copano as well as within our industry. He was a remarkable man whose leadership, energy and passion shaped our company's culture and success. He will be greatly missed.”

Eckel is survived by his father, John R. Eckel Sr., his brother David Eckel and wife, Sandra, his sister Anne Lowery and husband Greg and his niece Sarah Lowery. Funeral arrangements are still be finalized.

In lieu of flowers, his family requests direct donations in Eckel’s memory be made to the Whitney Museum of American Art, Attn: Michele Snyder, 945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021, or to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (American Painting and Sculpture), Attn.: Tammy Largent, P.O. Box 6826, Houston, TX, 77265.