VIC LUKAS

My friendship with Vic Lukas goes back to the late '80s. Vic and I got together most Wednesday evenings for 25+ years, sometimes in larger settings and oftentimes just the two of us. Vic was always a source of inspiration. In addition to playing tunes and telling stories, we would often talk about life's challenges and how to face them with courage and creativity.

 

Vic had a deep connection to singing. He had great insight into the meaning of song, and how it related to reality. He really was the ambassador of song, disseminating light through his old fedora, guitar, and voice.

​

A brilliant and thoughtful man, Vic was always willing to learn and change throughout his life, always meditating on "doing the right thing."

​

Vic easily blended charm, good will, skepticism, and wit into a quirky, delightful soup fit for a May Day wizard - a humble, gentlemanly man, who did his best to make this world a better place through his curious, kind nature. We are all fortunate to be recipients of Vic's grace and wisdom.

​

RIP dear friend.

​

Fred Levine, Hillsborough NC

Vic was born in Washington, DC, grew up in Italy and India, and moved to Urbana Illinois at the age of 14. He entered U of I at 16, served in Naval ROTC and shipped around the Great Lakes. He majored in math, then ethnomusicology and worked on early mainframe computers, hanging out in Chicago coffee houses and blues clubs. After moving to DC he worked with film crews and put on light shows. He came to North Carolina to pursue an anthropology PhD at Duke, lived with Rastafarians in Kingston, then settled in NC working as a photographer and later as a systems analyst – always playing music, dancing and singing.

​

​