Son of a physician in Pennsylvania, Dr. Luchi took his B.S. degree from the University of Scranton in 1948 and his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1952. Following an internship and residency at Penn, where he was Chief Resident in Medicine, he rose through the ranks from Instructor to Associate Professor and became Associate Director of the Department of Medicine Clinical Research Center. Following a stay at the University of Iowa as Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Coronary Care Units of the VA and University Hospitals in Iowa City, Dr. Luchi came to Baylor College of Medicine in 1970 as Professor and Vice Chairman of Medicine and Chief of the Medical Service at the Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In 1978, Dr. Luchi took a sabbatical with Professor Exton-Smith in London, England. Upon his return, a program in aging was begun at Baylor and at the VA Hospital. In 1988, with the Huffington family's endowment, this program became the Huffington Center on Aging, the first such clinical, research, and education aging center in Texas.

Dr. Luchi's outside interests range from the study of Italian culture and language to thoroughbred hunters and jumpers, skiing, and computers. He and his wife, Jean, have two sons and two daughters; two are physicians, one is a gerontologist, and one is a Jesuit Priest. Dr. Luchi is listed in the The Best Doctors in America.

Happy Travels, Dr. Luchi!

The future Robert J. Luchi, M.D., striking his “service chief” stance in his backyard in Wilkes-Barre, PA, at age 9 (circa 1937). Check out those sneakers! On 3 March 1998, we celebrated his 70th birthday.The young Bobby Luchi could not have envisioned that he would become an eminent geriatrician and the founding director of Baylor’s Huffington Center on Aging. Such is life. But we’re glad he did arrive at this station and that he is still a time traveler, still teaching and learning, and still living an exemplary life showing us how to prepare for one’s own old age -- e.g., Dr. Luchi bicycled 175 miles from Houston to Austin over two days just after his 70th birthday to support medical research. His 2002 travels include an African safari and a bicycle trip in France.

e-mail -- rluchi@bcm.tmc.edu