Robert Luce

Infobox Congressman
name = Robert Luce


state = Massachusetts
district = 13th district
term_start = March 4, 1919
term_end = January 3, 1941
preceded = William Henry Carter
succeeded = Richard B. Wigglesworth
order2 = 42nd Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
term_start2 = 1912
term_end2 = 1913
governor2 = Eugene Foss
predecessor2 = Louis A. Frothingham
successor2 = David I. Walsh
birth_date = December 2, 1862
birth_place = Auburn, Maine
death_date = April 7, 1946
death_place = Waltham, Massachusetts
party = Republican
profession =
spouse =
footnotes = |

Robert Luce was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. Born in Auburn, Maine on December 2, 1862, Luce attended the public schools of Auburn and Lewiston, Maine, and Somerville, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1882, then taught at Waltham High School for a year.

He engaged in journalism, founding and serving as president of the Luce’s Press Clipping Bureau in Boston and New York City. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1899 and 1901-1908. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but did not engage in extensive practice. He served as president of the Republican State Convention in 1910. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1912. He was a member of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement Board. He was a delegate to the State constitutional convention 1917-1919, and served as president of the Republican Club of Massachusetts in 1918. He was Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and was an author, notably on the subject of political science.

He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth and the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1919-January 3, 1935). He served as chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 2 (Sixty-seventh Congress), and the Committee on World War Veterans’ Legislation (Sixty-eighth Congress). Along with Senator Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota, he introduced the bill that formed the United States Commission of Fine Arts, which governs planning in Washington, D.C.. The bill, the Shipstead-Luce Act, is still in effect.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1934 to the Seventy-fourth Congress, but was elected to the Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth Congresses (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1941).He was again unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1940 to the Seventy-seventh Congress. Luce resumed his former business pursuits,and died in Waltham on April 7, 1946. He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

References

*CongBio|L000498