Mr. Roger Luchs

Mr. Luchs, the son of Wallace Luchs, Jr. and Barbara Baer Luchs, was born and grew up in the District of Columbia. He attended Ben Murch Elementary School, Alice Deal Junior High School, and Woodrow Wilson (now Jackson-Reed) High School. He graduated cum laude from Williams College, Williamstown, MA, in 1973. He earned a Master of Social Work degree at Washington University, Saint Louis, MO in 1975, living for a while with a family in Patterson, NJ, In 1981 he received a Juris Doctor with high honors at George Washington University Law School, having attended mostly at night, while working in the office of Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) during the day. He took pride in his co-authorship, with Lewis D. Solomon, of an article “And This Little Piggy went to Congress: The Revenue Act of 1978 and the Investment Tax Credit for Single-Purpose Agricultural and Horticultural Structures,” in the SMU Dedman School of Law Journal, 1979. In later life he was a regular on-line contributor to American Thinker.

After law school he worked with two Washington, DC firms, King and Nordlinger (1981-2003), then Greenstein, Delorme and Luchs (2003-2017), specializing in litigation relating to real estate issues.

He had a lively interest in the arts, with intense curiosity about visual arts, archaeology and history. His musical tastes ranged from Mozart to Zappa to Penderecki, his appreciation for paintings from medieval manuscript illuminations to Monet and Kandinsky. He enjoyed traveling to Italy, Greece, Israel, England and Austria. After retirement, he helped organize lecture programs at Ingleside at King Farm. Musical talents led him to become an enthusiastic clarinetist, pianist, and guitar player until disabled by dystonia; he was participating in a related study at NIH at the time of his death. He also became a subject of the Washington Post’s “Medical Mysteries: That Noise was Not Tinnitus” in 2009 when he finally found a physician who recognized a potentially fatal condition that had been dismissed as tinnitus by several other doctors. His wry sense of humor about many aspects of life, including politics and his own infirmities, will be fondly remembered.

His 25-year marriage (1990-2015) to Maureen Corcoran (Luchs) ended in divorce. He was predeceased by his beloved dogs Bean and Sprout. Survivors include his mother, Barbara B. Luchs, of Washington, D.C., his twin brother, Richard (Kathleen Harrington) of Sarasota, Florida; his sister Alison (Richard A. Best, Jr.) of Washington, D.C.; his friend and former wife Maureen Luchs of Waco, Texas; stepsons Matthew Braatz and Michael Corcoran [Lisa], three nephews, one grand-nephew, and many devoted friends and neighbors.

Charitable contributions in his honor may be made to the Pet Network Humane Society in Incline Village, Nevada; Save the Children; the Salvation Army, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.