At the time of his death in 1993, he was the longest-serving faculty in the history of Stanford University, getting hired in 1926 as an assistant professor and retiring in 1965.
He took an interest in cooperative organization, helping establish the Palo Alto Co-op, which were consumer-owned grocery stores.
[5] In July 1930, Luck wrote to about 50 biochemists in the US, United Kingdom, and Canada to ask if an annual volume of critical reviews on biochemistry research would be useful, to which he received positive responses.
Stanford University Press agreed to publish the journal on a three-year contract, with financial assistance from the Chemical Foundation.
[10] Prior to this, Luck's only experience in the publishing industry was working for a summer as a book salesman in Western Canada.
[10] At the completion of the contract with Stanford University Press, the Advisory Committee of the journal, which included Carl L. Alsberg, Denis Hoagland, and Carl L. A. Schmidt, decided to assume a legal identity as the journal's publisher, though keeping Stanford University Press as the printer.
On December 12, 1934, they submitted articles of incorporation with the California Secretary of State to create Annual Review of Biochemistry, Ltd., which was organized as a nonprofit.
[5] Luck had an interest in nutrition science, and conducted a local survey each year on the cost of a balanced diet from the 1950s to the 1960s.
[2] As President of the Pacific Division of American Association for the Advancement of Science, Luck gave a speech in regards to human population growth, saying that abortion should be permitted and encouraged in some cases, which proved highly controversial.
[5] In its obituary of him, the New York Times called Luck "an early advocate of abortion as a means of worldwide population control".