Robert "Bob" DeWitt Luce

Bob grew up in the St Matthews neighborhood of Louisville KY. He graduated from Manual High School and went on to Purdue from there graduating in 1953. He loved Purdue and was a life long dedicated fan. He left there with a degree in civil engineering.

He spent some time in the Army working in the Army Corps of Engineers assigned to work on airstrips in England.

Bob primarily loved three things in life: Purdue, bicycling and his life long love, Alice. Not necessarily in that order.

Bob and Alice met at Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis in their singles group. They had a quick romance and were married in August of 1959 in Louisville Kentucky. By 1961 they had their first son, David, and in 1964 their second son Jim. They lived a quiet life in Indianapolis where Bob worked as a civil engineer who had a particular love for Indiana’s old bridges. He spent the rest of his professional life working on and around them. He could tell you the name of every county clerk in Indiana (92 of them) and all the bridges he had worked on in each county. In his later years he loved riding his scooter around the state and looking at them.

Bob was a natural athlete. He had energy to burn and found his preferred way to burn it on the seat of a bicycle. In his lifetime he rode coast to coast across America twice, from Mexico to Canada, a couple trips around the UK and many rides in the Rocky Mountains. He loved riding around town dropping in on his friends and family (usually unannounced). He taught his sons to love it too, but never quite got Alice to ride. When he finally became too frail to ride, it was one of the great losses of his life.

He was also a great adventurer. He loved traveling, going on hikes in the mountains and exploring. One of my enduring memories of him will be driving a mountain road in Arizona on a family trip on roads that were not intended for the Pontiac Bonneville he was driving, with rocks scratching the bottom of the car and my mother unhappy in the front. My brother and I had a great time though. “Stay on the posted trail” was just a challenge to Bob. He figured he could find his way to wherever he was going. One of his favorite things to do was to follow a creek when we were on vacation, jumping from rock to rock until he ran across another bridge or saw some other way out.

Bob’s sense of adventure extended to his business dealings. He enjoyed being involved in a variety of businesses from being an owner of the Wooden Key gift shops to investing in ice buckets, he wasn’t always successful, but he made enough to make it through to the end.

Bob loved Alice most of all. In their later years, especially as she started to fail, you never saw one without the other, almost always holding hands. She was his only concern as she became more frail. He encouraged her and told her he loved her even when she couldn’t respond anymore.

So today, after a year and a half apart, he is back with her, holding her hand and telling her that he loves her over and over again. Stroking her hair and kissing her brow. Our whole family is happy for both of them.

Bob and Alice had two sons, David (Debbie) and Jim (Fred). They have four grandchildren Erin Scott (Brandon), Emily, Matthew (Lianne), and Michael (Katie), three great grandchildren through Erin and Brandon (Jillian and Connor and Savannah) and two through Michael and Katie (Charlie and Samuel).

There will be a private Celebration of Life at Crown Hill for immediate family. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to St. Luke’s Methodist Church.