Born in Huntington and raised in West Virginia, Cool Hand Luke served as an aircraft armorer assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron for occupation duty in Japan.  The squadron was outfitted with that beauty of a warbird, the P-51 Mustang,  The outbreak of war in Korea brought him onto the peninsula, where he served from the Pusan Perimeter to as far north as Pyongyang.  After his discharge, he attended West Virginia University where he met and married Jane McAdams, the love of his life.

Luke shot for many years with the Carolina Single Action Shooting Society (C-SASS) in Eden NC and with the Piedmont Handgunners’ Association range in Salisbury NC, along with various other clubs in the area.  He won 2nd Place Elder Statesman at the 2001 Mule Camp and the following month he won the Elder Statesman category at Susquehanna Roundup (the Northeast Regional at that time).  He also remained active as a skirmisher in the North-South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) as well as in CAS.  A bout with cancer and a subsequent stroke slowed him down but couldn’t stop him; and even after he was unable to shoot, he still attended an occasional match just to be with his friends.

Luke had a lasting impact on our game.  For those who don’t know it, he was one of the four shooters who developed and refined the original “cowboy cheat sheet” which was personally approved by Judge Roy Bean.  That cheat sheet was adopted by SASS in 2001 and is now known as the RO Pocket Reference Card.  Next time you refer to it, remember to say a silent word of thanks to Luke for his role in developing it.

Always quick with a smile and a kind word, Cool Hand Luke enjoyed good fellowship, mentorship, and a good story told over a glass of rye whisky.  But most of all he cherished his wife Saint Janie, his daughters Nancy and Susanne (aka Cooler Than Luke), and his two grandchildren.  I would ask that you remember them in your prayers.

Cool Hand Luke

aka

Frank S. Lucas