Mark Gordon Nuckels

Mark Gordon Nuckels passed away on Sunday, October 15, 2023 in Grapevine, Texas. He was born in Covington, Kentucky on January 21, 1955, to Clarence (Bud) and Ruthie Nuckels, the middle son in a family of 3 boisterous boys.

After earning his Masters in Geology at USF in Tampa, Florida, Mark began his distinguished career in petroleum geology with Mobil Oil in 1981 in Dallas, where he met his first wife, Carol. They made a tour of the Gulf Coast in the 1980’s, finally returning to work in the Dallas office and live in Grapevine in 1992.

During his career at Mobil, he worked on many interesting and high profile projects, from wells in the North Atlantic to numerous onshore wells from Mississippi to South Texas, and earning recognition for his technical work and management of a multi-billion dollar LNG project in Qatar. He loved geology and was proud of the contributions he made during his career at Mobil as well as at Pioneer Natural Resources, Encana, and Samson. He rounded out his career by teaching and passing on his love of geology to students at Tarrant County College.

Mark developed a love of the outdoors at an early age, and many of his favorite times were spent canoeing and camping in forests and parks throughout the piney woods of east Texas. He also enjoyed traveling around the world throughout his life, including working in Saudi Arabia between his undergraduate and graduate programs.

His most joyous moment came in 1997 with the birth of his daughter Anna. He enjoyed family camping trips and traveling to Scotland with her, later joining her and the other dads for the yearly father/daughter halftime performance with her high school dance team.

In retirement, Mark continued to get in as much travel and camping as he could, especially enjoying trips in his Casita camper.

Remembered by friends and even acquaintances who were touched by his generosity when they encountered difficult times, Mark was loved and will be missed by his family and friends.

Mark was preceded in death by his older brother Ed. He is survived by his brother Todd, his niece Kendra, nephews Sam, Christopher and William, his first wife Carol, and the love and light of his life, his daughter Anna.