Oilman, philanthropist Dan L. Duncan dies at 77

Dan L. Duncan, the Texas pipeline billionaire who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to hospitals, museums and wildlife associations, has died in Houston. He was 77.

During the past four decades Duncan built $10,000 and two fuel trucks into a trio of publicly traded entities with a combined market value of $29.2 billion. The biggest of the three, Enterprise Products Partners, returned 20 percent a year during the past decade, compared with 1 percent annual losses for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Duncan died at home Sunday.

Duncan, who was chairman and the largest investor in Enterprise Products Partners when he died, ranked as the third-richest Texan by Forbes magazine this month, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heir Alice Walton and Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell. Among U.S. billionaires, Duncan was No. 30.

Forbes estimated Duncan's fortune at $9 billion. Recipients of his generosity included the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas Heart Institute, the Boy Scouts of America, the Houston Zoo and Baylor College of Medicine.

Duncan's contributions to medical research, orphans and the poor amounted to $259 million from 2004 to 2008.