Louis F. Lucas was a Washington, D.C.-area native, born in Berwyn, Maryland, just to the northeast of the District of Columbia. He attended public schools in the district, then college at Columbus University where he earned a Master of Commercial Science degree. Later, in 1940, Lucas earned a Bachelor of Legal Letters degree from Southeastern University in Washington, D.C.
During World War II, Lucas served in the United States Army. Following graduation from the Army’s Finance School in 1941, he was assigned to the 29th Infantry Division. After service in both its active and reserve components, he retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel. His decorations included the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.
Lucas joined the National Rifle Association of America’s staff as treasurer and business manager for the association in 1948. In 1953, he became the association’s deputy executive director, its executive director and treasurer in 1970 and its executive vice president-finance in 1973. He retired from that latter office, following a 28-year career, in 1976.
Outside his considerable skill as a financial manager, Lucas was dedicated to the marksmanship and firearm safety training missions of the NRA. One of his first undertakings, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was to help organize the NRA Hunter Safety Program and get it built into its present-day, national scope. In 1968, when the Department of Defense dropped its support for the National Matches, it was Lucas who organized and directed the NRA’s successful operation efforts of the National Matches using NRA-member volunteers in place of service personnel.
One of his NRA staff contemporaries, the late M.D. Waite, summed up Lucas’s contributions and continuing value to the NRA. “[Mr. Lucas],” Waite said, “always came through. It didn’t seem to matter how critical the situation, or how much time was available to react, or the cost; ‘Luke’ would work out a solution and fit it into the time frame and get it paid for—up front.”
On the occasion of Lucas’s retirement, then-NRA Executive Vice President Maxwell Rich praised his dedication, remembering that in 1968, “Luke led the faithful handful of NRA staffers and members who kept [the National Matches] going. He always put his shoulder to the wheel, whenever needed.”
After his death at age 76 in May of 1988, and at his family’s request, the NRA instituted the Louis F. Lucas Trophy, to be awarded annually to the high scoring senior competitor firing the service rifle at the NRA National High Power Rifle Championships.
Louis F. Lucas
b. October 6, 1911 – d. May 28, 1988
