Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Buck was the son of a merchant who gave him every opportunity to cultivate his musical talents.

In 1901 it led to Buck announcing his resignation from Holy Trinity effective May 1902, whereupon he took the job of organist and choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn.

His funeral was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Manhattan; his own compositions In Memoriam and Over the Treetops There Is Rest were sung by the Apollo Club.

He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair, New Jersey (the same burial site as other notable hymn composers Lowell Mason, Mary Artemisia Lathbury, and George Webb).

[4][5] Several memorials were held after his death, including one led by E. H. Joyce in October 1910 at Bridgeport's First Presbyterian Church,[6] and one led by John Hyatt Brewer (who had replaced Buck as conductor of the Apollo Club in 1903[4]) in January 1911 in Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.