Luckey became the eighth president of LWC on July 1, 1998. Luckey came to LWC in 1983 to work in the college's admissions office. After working his way up to Director of Admissions, Vice President for Enrollment Management, Vice President for Development, and then Vice President for Administrationand Finance, he was named the college's eighth president on April 24, 1997. "The trustees felt that it is crucial for this college to continue to have a clear mission and direction for the long-term future," Cal Turner Jr. of Brentwood, Tennessee, then-chairman of the LWC Board of Trustees, said following the announcement. "This decision will ensure a smooth transition from President Reuling's administration through the administration of President Luckey." Luckey took over the presidency on July 1, 1998, and was inaugurated as the college's eight president on Oct. 5, 2000. Since then, the college hit several highlights:

• The college received its largest commitment in school history in April 2004 when James R. and Helen Lee Fugitte of Elizabethtown, Ky., pledged $8.6 million. The $8.6 million commitment included $3 million that was used to build the Jim and Helen Lee Fugitte Science Center, which was dedicated on Oct. 6, 2006.
• Announced in April 2004 the $33 milllion "Changing Lives Campaign." The campaign's goals are to: build a science center; build a new learning center; transform the college's current science building into a multi-use classroom building; add $15 million to the LWC Endowment; and raise $3.5 million for the Lindsey Wilson Fund. The campaign ran through June 30, 2007,and it raised almost $37 million. The LWC Board of Trustees voted to extended it through June 30, 2010, and raise its goal to $53 million. The goal was exceeded by more than $3 million.
• The college received its largest foundation gift when the James Graham Brown Foundation of Louisville, Kentucky, gave $500,000 to renovate the Cralle Student Union Building. Combined with a $250,000 gift from the Cralle Foundation of Louisville, the college added a 3,800-square-foot expansion to the SUB, making it the first building to be opened during the Luckey administration. In December 2004, the Brown Foundation gave the college another $500,000 -- to be used for the new science center. For the first time in college history, LWC closed enrollment early for the 1998-99 school year when 1,463 students enrolled at the college. The college's 2006-07 enrollment was 1,791 students.
• A 10,000-square-foot addition to the Holloway Building -- which houses the Katie Murrell Library -- was opened in August 2002, doubling the size of library space.
• A campus quadrangle, which includes a 150-seat amphitheater and park area, was opened during the 2002-03 academic year.
• The college opened Walter S. Reuling Stadium in September 1999, a European-style soccer field.
• The Lindsey Wilson Sports Park opened in 2010. The Sports Park includes Blue Raider Stadium for football, and track and field; Egnew Park for baseball; and Blue Raider Park for softball.
• The 73,232-square-foot Doris and Bob Holloway Health & Wellness Center opened in April 2010.
• Three residence halls have been built: Richardson Hall (2000), Harold J. Smith Hall (2010), and Jerry and Kendrick McCandless Hall (2011).
• Dr. Robert and Carol Goodin Nursing and Counseling Center, a 27,100-square-foot, two-story building, which is home to LWC's baccalaureate nursing program and School of Professional Counseling.

At his inauguration on Oct. 5, 2000, Luckey told an audience of more than 700 in Biggers Sports Center that LWC has "never been stronger."

"I stand before you today knowing that we are on the right path," said Luckey, who is a Louisville, Ky., native. "In fact, this college has never been stronger than it is today."

Luckey, who has been at Lindsey Wilson since 1983, said he was "humbled" by the opportunity to lead the college.

"As former Vanderbilt University Chancellor Alexander Heard once said, 'If ever I have a claim to boldness in this life, it is the willingness to follow in this wake. For if I happen to see further into the future than my predecessors, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants,'" he said.

The focus of President Luckey's administration is to continue Lindsey Wilson's development as a liberal arts, church-related college that is distinguished for being one of the best undergraduate teaching colleges in the nation.

Luckey noted that Lindsey Wilson's mission is a big reason the college has been the fastest-growing and most diverse independent liberal arts college in Kentucky during the last 20 years. President Luckey leads a faculty and staff of more than 380 and a student body of more than 2,600. The college's annual budget is more than $57 million.

"One of our greatest strengths as a college is that we know who we are and who we serve," he said.

Luckey said that Lindsey Wilson must continue to provide outstanding undergraduate teaching because "we live in a society today where education is going through radical changes."

"We hear about distance learning, online courses, virtual universities and living in the information age," he said. "But education is not about information, it's about transformation, changing lives - and that is the role the faculty play in students' lives."

Lindsey Wilson College is one of only 223 -- or six percent -- of U.S. colleges and universities that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has classified as a Baccalaureate-Liberal Arts college. (The other four Kentucky Baccalaureate-Liberal Arts institutions are Berea, Centre and Georgetown colleges and Transylvania University.)

"Clearly, we must teach our students to think critically, to reason, to speak and write effectively, but it goes much deeper than that," Luckey said. "We must prepare our students to be values-centered parents, employees, volunteers committed to serving others. We are preparing them for professions in the future, many of which are yet to be invented."