Juan Luco, 46, a changeable philosopher and free spirit who taught, coached and worked as an actor in Chicago from time to time, died of a heart attack Friday, April 28, in San Luis, Argentina, where he spent the past 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 themselves, his friends and family said. “He felt that in order to do it, that you needed to be deceitful,” Keenan said. “He sacrificed a lot for what he cared about.” “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 while still a boy. His father was a nuclear physicist, eventually working at Argonne National Laboratory, while Mr. Luco was to gain some fame for playing on his high school’s football and soccer teams. He began attending the University of Chicago in 1971, around the same time his family returned to Argentina, and he didn’t see them for 11 years after that. Though his father encouraged him to be a physicist, Mr. Luco instead pursued a variety of 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 half a 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 remained 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’s women’s soccer team, and continued teaching 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. Besides his brother, Mr. Luco is survived by his mother, Gloria; and another brother Martin. A memorial will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday in Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap, 55th Street and Woodlawn Avenue.
