Juan Luco, 46, who taught, coached and worked as an actor in Chicago from time to time, died Friday, April 28, in San Luis, Argentina, where he spent five years teaching English and tending to stray dogs. “He was shockingly engaging. A conversation with him was like going for a walk in uncharted territory,” said Geoff Keenan, a longtime friend. Eccentric and uncomfortable with opportunities that offered traditional forms of success, Mr. Luco was more concerned with the reasons for doing things than with accomplishments, his friends and family said. “He sacrificed a lot for what he cared about,” Keenan said. “He was not one of the crowd, that’s for sure,” added Mr. Luco’s brother Roberto. Born in San Luis, Mr. Luco moved with his family to Hinsdale as a boy. His father was a nuclear physicist, eventually working at Argonne National Laboratory. Mr. Luco played on his high school’s football and soccer teams. He started at the University of Chicago in 1971, about the same time his family returned to Argentina. Mr. Luco did not see them for 11 years. Though his father encouraged him to be a physicist, Mr. Luco instead pursued other interests while in college, including working as an actor and serving as captain of the university’s soccer team. During that time, he also coached a half-dozen soccer teams in the Hyde Park area and taught in centers for immigrants and troubled teens. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1985, 14 years after coming to the U. of C. For the final four years of that time, all that stood between him and his degree was turning in two papers, said Keenan. One of them was already written. After graduation, Mr. Luco coached the university women’s soccer team, and he taught in the Chicago area for the next 10 years. In the early 1990s, he co-founded Teatro Vista, a West Side theater group, and returned to Argentina, he told his friends, because he wanted to be close to his widowed mother. Mr. Luco is also survived by his mother, Gloria; and another brother, Martin. A memorial will be held Monday at 1 p.m. in Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap, 55th Street and Woodlawn Avenue in Hyde Park.
