Nebletts’ work has reached throughout Port Aransas

It’s hard to find a facet of life in Port Aransas that hasn’t been touched by the work of Georgia and Duncan Neblett Jr. since they moved here in 1976.

Duncan, 82, has been employed for decades as an attorney, municipal court judge and justice of the peace here in town.

Georgia, 76, is a former Port Aransas mayor who has worked as director of external affairs at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and served on the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Board of Directors and the Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors.

Voters have elected both Georgia and Duncan to the Port Aransas school board in the past.

And both of them have been awarded for their work in the Port Aransas Boatmen organization and for their achievements in the area of wildlife conservation.

“I think the thing that I’m most proud of is, we’ve been here this long and we’re still participating,” Georgia said. “…We’ve held the line.”

Before Port Aransas

Georgia grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then moved with her family to Houston when she was about 14 years old. She graduated from that city’s Robert E. Lee High School in 1965.

Duncan lived in LaPorte until he was about 13 years old, then moved with his family to Houston, about 20 miles away. He graduated from Houston’s Lamar High School in 1960.

Duncan earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 and got a law degree at the University of Houston School of Law in 1967.

He worked as a clerk for a probate judge, Bill Bear, for a couple of years, then became general counsel for an auto parts company.

Duncan and Georgia met when both were working at a hardware store in Houston. At the time, Duncan had taken his bar exam and was waiting on the results.

About three and a half years later, in 1971, they were married.

A new life in Port A

Several years later, with three children (Daniel Duncan Neblett III, David Wallace Neblett and George Hunter Neblett), the Nebletts decided to move away from Houston. The big city didn’t seem to Georgia and Duncan like such a great place to raise a family.

They had vacationed a lot in Port Aransas and loved it. They enjoyed the fishing and duck hunting here and knew that Port Aransas had a good school system.

And so, they moved.

Once they got here, “the natural thing was to get involved,” Duncan said.

Duncan quickly got his boat captain’s license and joined the Port Aransas Boatmen organization. Not long after that, Georgia joined, too.

Georgia said she was taken under the wing of Marie Stiewig, a longtime Port Aransas resident with deep ties to the community.

“I don’t know if I would have made it if Marie hadn’t taken me under her wing,” Georgia said. “In those days, if Marie accepted you, you were accepted (in town).”

At Stiewig’s urging, Georgia joined the Mothers Club, now known as the PTO, and began doing volunteer work for the organization. She was put in charge of various functions.

Where school volunteer work is concerned, she eventually became a member of the Port Aransas Athletic Booster Club, serving as president for two years. She even wrote the lyrics to the school’s alma mater song.

A career in law

Duncan established a general law practice in Corpus Christi soon after arriving in Port Aransas, and he’s still practicing today.

He said he has enjoyed his career largely because he sees it as a way to help people.

“The ordinary working guy – they’re sometimes just overwhelmed by the system,” Duncan said. “Maybe a kid gets in trouble, or maybe they get in trouble. Maybe mama dies … or daddy dies. Their personal lives are in shambles, and their business, financial, whatever life. … They need somebody to listen to them and sort of guide them through. … There’s a lot of counseling, you know, life counseling, that goes on between a lawyer and a client.”

In his role as justice of the peace and municipal court judge, he handles Class C misdemeanors. A lot of that involves minors in possession of alcohol, disorderly conduct and public intoxication. As justice of the peace, he also hears civil cases including matters related to people not paying rent or small-claims disputes over whether contractors have done what they were hired to do.

His role as judge gives him opportunities to help people by hearing them out on their problems, he said.

“Most people, if they feel like they got to tell you their story, they’ll usually leave with the feeling of, you know, I wish you hadn’t found me guilty, but I understand,” he said. “They may say that, or they may not say it, but think it.”

He said he has no plans to retire as an attorney or judge.

“When I was younger, all I wanted to do was fish and hunt and play,” he said. “That’s what kids do. And I may have been a 40, 50, 60-year-old kid, but I’m a little older than that now – a lot older, actually – and I figured out … I don’t want to do those things every day, all day long.”

He said he will run for justice of the peace again after his current term expires in December 2026.

Georgia said Duncan is the longest-sitting judge in Nueces County.

Georgia’s work at UTMSI

Georgia was employed as the University of Texas Marine Science Institute’s external affairs director.

“My job was to try to raise money and communicate science to the public and elected officials and to network,” she said.

Talking about UTMSI’s scientific research, she kept up a running communication with state legislators and members of Congress “so there was an appreciation of the fact that this was happening in their districts,” Georgia said. “They needed to know what contributions were being made by people working right in their district.”

She said she was proud to represent the institute.

“Being able to expose their (scientific) work through the networking that I have was very gratifying,” she said. “I have so much enthusiasm for what goes on there. Sharing it is just great fun.”

RTA experience

Georgia said then-mayor Jim Sherrill and then-city manager Tom Brooks recruited her to serve on the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors to give Port Aransas a bigger voice with the organization.

“We needed a representative that would be tenacious in trying to get what we deserved for the money we (Port Aransas taxpayers) were putting into the system. “Tom said, ‘You’re pretty tenacious, and you need to be that way (on the board).’ So I was, and we actually had some pretty good results out of that.”

Georgia’s influence brought in $36,000 to create a trolley “turn-around” at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.

She also was responsible for obtaining a new Flex-B bus for Port Aransas, a van for the city and two buses to accommodate the disabled for PAISD.

TWIA

Neblett was appointed to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) Board of Directors in 2006. The appointment was made by Mike Geeslin, who was the state commissioner of insurance at the time.

Created by the Legislature, TWIA is the state’s windstorm insurer of last resort. TWIA’s board deals with policy matters and implements operational plans.

“TWIA was for many years, and still is somewhat, dominated by insurance companies who have their own best interests at heart,” said Georgia, who became the board’s chair in 2014. “So, we needed somebody to stand up for the consumer.”

She said she has been “stubborn and tenacious about what’s in the best interest of the consumer.”

Georgia, who currently is the board’s vice chair, said she has worked to prevent increases in windstorm premium rates and has been successful at that for the past two years.

At City Hall

In addition to serving on the city panels including the Planning and Zoning Commission, Library Board and Charter Commission, Georgia was mayor of Port Aransas from 2004 to 2006.

She said that one of her most proud moments as mayor occurred when the Port Aransas Civic Center became a shelter for a few dozen victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated areas of Louisiana and Mississippi. Victims were being housed in shelters in a variety of locations far outside the areas where the hurricane hit.

Georgia recalled: “The fellow who was head of emergency services for Corpus called me and said, ‘Georgia, I have people coming in on a bus, and I need you to set up a shelter.’ And he said, ‘I don’t have any place I can put them in Corpus. Will you, please?’ ”

Georgia contacted Richard Safford, who at the time was the minister at Community Presbyterian Church.

“He and I bought every mattress that the mattress company had in Corpus, and we had a shelter set up in three hours,” Georgia said.

Boatmen

Duncan and Georgia have served the Boatmen organization in a number of ways over the years.

Duncan has acted as the Boatmen’s attorney, helping negotiate lease conditions with the city for the Boatmen’s dock space.

Both of them have worked in a variety of capacities to help the Boatmen make the Deep Sea Roundup happen each year.

Georgia long has worked at the fishing tournament’s weigh station, keeping it an organized operation.

Years ago, Georgia asked Scott Holt – then a University of Texas Marine Science Institute researcher – to help with the roundup, she said. He began computerizing roundup results and brought in additional scientists from UTMSI to help at the event.

Georgia emceed the Roundup for many years and continues to emcee the Roundup’s piggy perch contest. She also has handled other aspects of the roundup, such as decorating the Civic Center.

Duncan always works as dockmaster for boats arriving to weigh their fish.

Georgia asked the Boatmen years ago to sponsor the library’s summer reading program, and they did it. They still do it today.

In 1997, the Nebletts were named Boatmen of the Year. Georgia was inducted into the Boatmen’s Hall of Fame in 2008.

At Port Aransas ISD

Duncan served on the Port Aransas ISD Board of Trustees from 1978 to 1980. Georgia was a trustee from 1984 to 1990.

During Georgia’s tenure, the school district sent representatives to Bel Air High School and St. John’s, a private school in Houston, “to see what they were doing that we weren’t doing,” she said.

“Although that came in right as I was going off the board, we were able to implement those things and make some changes to the curriculum that we thought would take, you know, probably three years to see the effects of, and we saw the effects really, within 18 months. That was pretty exciting.”

Still loving Port A

Despite the fact that Port Aransas has grown and otherwise changed a lot since they first arrived nearly 50 years ago, the Nebletts say they don’t expect to ever move away.

“We’ve been fortunate to travel a lot, both in the states and overseas, and I can’t think of any place that I would choose to live that isn’t Port Aransas,” Georgia said.

Fellow community members make Port Aransas a highly livable town, they said.

Georgia pointed out that community members are responsible for a few hundred thousand dollars’ worth of scholarships that are awarded to Port Aransas High School seniors every year.

Old friends can’t be replaced, Duncan said.

“I really enjoy seeing the people that I’ve seen for a long, long time, maybe 10 years, maybe 50 years, to be able to occasionally see those people in the IGA or the post office, down at the dock at the Deep Sea Roundup every year. As I get older, I appreciate that more,” he said. “If we got transported to any other place in the universe, and I don’t care how beautiful and big and ritzy it is, you couldn’t replace that.”

Neblett resumés extensive

Georgia

Occupations

• Special billing manager, Gulf Oil, Houston

• Bookkeeper for B Swag in Port Aransas

• Director, external affairs, University of Texas Marine Science Institute, 2010-2023

Awards

• Port Aransas Citizen of the Year – 1996

• Conservationist of the Year – Redfish Bay Chapter Gulf Coast Conservation Association (Date unavailable)

• Port Aransas Boatmen Hall of Fame 2008

• Port Aransas Rod and Reel Conservationist of the Year – 2010, 2023

Elected/appointed office

• Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees – 1984 to 1990 (President from 1988 to 1990)

• Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority, 1994-2001 (Chairman 1999- 2001)

• Metropolitan Public Transportation Board 1994-2001

• Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Board of Directors, 2006-present. Past chairman, current vice president.

• Texas Fair Plan Governing Committee – 2008 to present.

Past and present civic organization memberships

Port Aransas Athletic Booster Club

Port Aransas Kiwanis Club

Gulf Coast Conservation Association Redfish Bay Chapter

Port Aransas Boatmen

Trinity-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church Bishop’s Committee

University of Texas Marine Science Institute Advisory Council

Duncan

Occupation

Attorney 57 years

Awards

• Conservationist of the Year – Redfish Bay Chapter Gulf Coast Conservation Association (Date unavailable)

• Port Aransas Rod and Reel Conservationist of the Year – 1990

• Port Aransas Boatman of the Year – 1997

Elected/appointed office

• Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees – 1978-1980

• Municipal Court Judge – 43 years

• Justice of the Peace – 34 years