Luce, John Victor (1920–2011), classicist, was born on 21 May 1920 in Dublin, the elder of two sons of Arthur Aston Luce (qv), then professor of moral philosophy in TCD, and his wife Lilian Mary (née Thompson), a philosophy graduate of TCD from Co. Longford. Lilian was a niece of Sir William Henry Thompson (qv), a physiology professor in TCD, who drowned in the sinking of the HMS Leinster in 1918. Lilian Luce also drowned, in May 1940, attempting unsuccessfully to rescue her 11-year-old daughter who got into difficulties in the river Liffey when the family was on a fishing trip.
John Luce attended Baymount Preparatory School, Dollymount, and Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, entering TCD in 1938 with an entrance scholarship to study classics and philosophy. He was such an outstanding student that, unusually in his first year, he was awarded a foundation scholarship in classics. In Michaelmas term in 1940, the year that he lost his mother and sister, he came first in both classics and mental and moral philosophy and was awarded a vice-chancellor's prize. Several other prizes, medals and awards marked him out for great things. In November 1942 he graduated with first-class moderatorships in both of his subjects and with two gold medals, and was immediately appointed to a junior lectureship in classics.
In 1945 Luce went to New College, Oxford, to take an MA by research, and later lectured in Greek at the University of Glasgow (1946–8). Except for visiting professorships in the United States and in South Africa, the rest of his career was in TCD: he was elected a fellow in 1948, was a reader in classics from 1963, and an associate professor from 1972. In 1984 he was appointed to the Erasmus Smith chair of oratory, held as a personal chair within the school of classics. Luce published articles on classical philosophy and literature, as well as The quest for Ulysses (1974), a useful Introduction to Greek philosophy (1992), Homer and the heroic age (1975), and a 1988 pamphlet on his father's contribution to Berkeley studies (see George Berkeley (qv)). His great love of his college was shared in his Trinity College Dublin: the first 400 years (1991) to mark the quatercentenary of its foundation.
Luce devoted years to researching the possible sources of the legend of Atlantis; The end of Atlantis: new light on an old legend had several editions from 1969, and was a scholarly but accessible treatment of the theory that the Minoan civilization and the volcanic disaster of Thera/Santorini was the origin of the story of the lost island. His work is still cited by Atlantis theorists. Luce was a popular guest lecturer on several Swan Hellenic cruises in the 1960s, and his last book, Celebrating Homer's landscapes: Troy and Ithaca revisited (1998), was illustrated with his own photographs.
In 1957 Luce was appointed executive officer on a committee established to work towards extending the college library facilities. In the event, after years of deliberation and fund-raising, a completely new and architecturally striking library building was commissioned following a major international architectural competition organised by Luce. The new Berkeley Library opened in 1967, an innovative and daring architectural development, which, in such a traditionalist university, surprised many observers.
For many years Luce was secretary of Trinity Trust. A tall and distinguished figure who generally wore his academic gown, he was senior dean (1977–85) and vice-provost (1987–9) of the college. As senior dean he was involved with dealing with the aftermath of a serious fire in the college dining hall in 1984, and also with a period of student unrest in the early 1980s, led by the president of the Students' Union, Joe Duffy, later a well-known radio personality. Duffy accorded Luce more than grudging respect, while noting that damage to a portrait of the senior dean's father had perhaps understandably altered Luce's reaction to the students accused of the affront.
As well as a distinguished scholarly career, Luce had a notable sporting reputation. He was captain of the college hockey, squash rackets, and cricket clubs and teams, and won six caps playing left-wing in the Irish hockey team (1946–54). During a twenty-year presidency of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (1956–76), governing body of sport in TCD, Luce was able to do a great deal to foster the provision of sports facilities in college and at Trinity Hall, the student residences in Dartry. The pavilion in College Park was extended in 1957, and in 1960 sports facilities in Santry, including a number of pitches for various sports and a pavilion, were opened to cater for the greatly increased student numbers. Luce's most notable success was in 1971, in standing up for the preservation of sports grounds in College Park, when the building of student residences there had almost been decided upon. In 1982 a new multi-purpose sports building was named the Luce Hall in honour of the contributions of Arthur Luce and John Victor Luce to TCD sports. He was made an honorary life member of the RDS from 1992.
Luce, however reluctantly, recognised that in the twentieth century the languages of antiquity were dying all over again, and that henceforth classical civilisation would in general be experienced by students through translations of ancient texts rather than in the original languages. Perhaps his main reputation in his college, and more widely, was based on his illustrious performances from 1972 as public orator in the college graduation ceremonies ('commencements'). The role of the public orator is to compose and deliver accolades to welcome and to expatiate upon the careers of honorary graduands, in Latin, the language in which the ceremonies are entirely conducted. The 350 Latin orations composed and impressively delivered by Luce over the years are remarkable works, revealing a very high level of linguistic and literary skill. Members of the audience, even those who could only read the English versions of the orations, marvelled at Luce's command of Latin and the classical elegance of his style, and enjoyed the Latin neologisms and witty circumlocutions with which he was able to deal with twentieth-century terminology. In orations presenting the careers of graduands such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Bono, the pianist John O'Conor, and scientists, Luce with consummate skill found appropriate ways to render such terms as 'computer readable' (machinis computatoriis tradita), 'piano' (plectrocymbalus) and 'AIDS' (Adversus Insidias Deficiunt Subsidia). Sample orations are available on a website of the TCD department of classics, and selections were published in 1991 and 2004, the latter marking Luce's retirement from the post of public orator in 2005 at the age of 85.
On 21 June 1948, in the church of St John the Evangelist, Edinburgh, he married (Marjorie) Lyndall Miles; they had three daughters. John Luce died 11 February 2011 in St Luke's Hospital, Dublin.