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Albert A. Lucine, Jr. was brought
up in Center City, Philadelphia. As a young surgical resident in
1950, Dr. Lucine was doing a rotation at the Presbyterian Hospital
in Philadelphia when his path crossed Janey's.
Dr. Lucine had been on a horse several times, and hurt a shoulder
with a fall off a non-Morgan. Since he was a physician in a private,
solo practice, who relied on his hands to make a living, he decided
he couldn't risk an injury. I was never really an expert at riding
horses, but I enjoyed being around them, he said.
Dr. Lucine with Squire Penn
At that time the Mid-Atlantic Morgan Horse Club was still a young
organization and was primarily made up of members from the New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and some New Yorkers. So to stay involved with
the horses, Dr. Lucine became involved in the administrative end of
running the Club's first horse show, which grew to an annual event
(the Mid-Atlantic Morgan Horse Show, which he was to chair the show
committee for 52 years). During those early years with the
Mid-Atlantic Show, Dr. Lucine credits Show Manager Mike Brittain as
the person that made it perk along, everywhere he went, there were
lots of smiles. He was a business man and had an upbeat
personality.
Over the years, Dr. Lucine devoted countless hours to both the Mid-A
Club (serving as president, secretary-treasurer and on the Board)
and the American Morgan Horse Association. Of the time he served as
President of the AMHA, Dr. Lucine says, I enjoyed it, we met a lot
of wonderful people and managed to work out a couple of things.
During the time Dr. Lucine was president, AMHA purchased the
property for its permanent home, in Shelburne, VT.
As someone who is understated and modest about his contributions,
Dr. Lucine was a longtime AMHA Director, and also served on a number
of AMHA committees, including the Registry Committee when they
established a trust fund for the American Morgan Horse Register. He
was also a Director of the American Horse Shows Association, and
Show Chairman of the First Grand National & World Championship
Morgan Horse Show in Detroit, MI.
This was also around the time that the AMHA, with Dr. Lucine on the
Board, developed the level of Regional Shows with each area of the
country having national recognition. And that's not all, Dr. Lucine
was also a member and trustee of the American Morgan Horse
Foundation as well as the American Morgan Horse Institute. In 1979,
Dr. Lucine was recognized as the AMHA Man of the Year (the same year
Helen Greenwalt was AMHA Woman of the Year), and in 1990, was
inducted into the AMHA Hall of Fame.
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