Robert Anthony Lucas

Robert Anthony Lucas was born in Gary, Indiana, on February 7, 1922. He graduated from Gary’s Horace Mann High School in 1939 and then enrolled at Indiana University. Lucas served as Class President his senior year and received his B.S., with distinction, from IU in 1943. After college, he joined the war effort, serving in the United States Army and rising to the rank of captain. Lucas returned to Indiana after the war and enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law in the fall of 1946. While in law school he served on the Student Board of the Indiana Law Journal (v.23 and 24), was elected to the Order of the Coif, and received his JD, with high distinction, in 1949. After law school, Lucas clerked for Judge H. Nathan Swain of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He then opened a small firm in his hometown of Gary, specializing in probate law and estate planning. Over the next 40 years, Lucas, Holcomb & Medrea would grow to become one of the most respected firms in the state. A leader in the legal community, Lucas served on the Board of Managers of the Indiana Bar Association and was a long time member of the Federal Judiciary. He was a member of the state’s Probate Study Commission that revised the Indiana Probate Code to reflect contemporary needs. He also served as a member of the Commission on Uniform State Laws A dedicated alumni, Lucas served Indiana University, and the law school, in enumerable ways. He served as President of both the IU Alumni Association and the law school’s Alumni Association. He was elected to the IU Board of Trustees in 1967 and served as Vice President of the Board from 1969 to 1970. In 1970, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Indiana University Foundation, serving in that position for more than ten years. In 1971, Lucas was appointed to the Indiana Higher Education Commission. Lucas received the University Distinguished Alumni Service award in 1982 and the IU Northwest Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1983. In 1988, Lucas was inducted into the law school’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and was presented an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1994. Lucas established an endowed professorship for the Law School in 1992. Robert A. Lucas died on March 10, 1999.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/notablealumni/1154/thumbnail.jp