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Luke Renier was introduced to the club by his sponsor Dr. Larry Meuli and welcomed to the Club by PE Beth. Luke and his wife Devonna moved to Wyoming (Casper) immediately after college in 1987. His first full time job was with a small accounting firm which through a series of buy outs and mergers, can be traced to today's MHP. Luke says that the accounting knowledge and skill sets have been invaluable throughout his life. Luke left the accounting profession after about five years and accepted a full time position with the Wyoming Army National Guard. He had originally joined the Nebraska Guard as a private while he was in college and transferred to the Wyoming Guard as a young Lieutenant. Luke held many positions in the Wyoming Guard, most of them related to the Field Artillery. A new position moved him and his family to Cheyenne in 1998. Luke commanded at multiple levels and deployed in 2004 to operation Iraqi Freedom 2 (OIF2). He was selected in 2011 by then Governor Mead to serve as the Adjutant General, a position he held for 8 years. Luke did say that he was privileged to follow fellow Rotarian and lifelong mentor, Ed Wright, into that position. Like Ed, Luke was a war time Adjutant General and his focus was ensuring the men and women of the Guard where well trained, well equipped and well lead before they deployed ... and they deployed a lot. He also ensured that when floods, fires and other issues arose throughout the state, that the Guard successfully responded. While serving as the Adjutant General, Luke was honored to be selected as the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year in 2016. He retired from the Guard in the spring of 2019. Luke says that he originally joined the Guard because he wanted to blow stuff up, but stayed for the 36 years because of the men and women he was privileged to serve with, because of the mission and because of the opportunity to serve our state and nation. After retiring from the Guard, Governor Gordon asked Luke to serve as the Director of WYDOT. Luke says he greatly enjoyed the challenges of that job and that his priority was taking care of the men and women who man the state's largest agency. It was an opportunity to put the leadership skills to work and it paid off. Luke also said he greatly enjoyed getting out across the state, meeting with local officials and working issues. Everybody has a road and typically - an opinion about what should be done with it. After a very successful run, Luke retired from that position in 2023. Luke is currently staying busy with projects around the house, family travel, church, boards and putting his WDOT earned CDL to use. He is also in the process of starting a planning/consulting business related to safe, strong, secure, survivable and resilient homes, businesses, and communities, ... an area he worked extensively in while serving as the Adjutant General. Luke and his wife have two grown daughters and one granddaughter. Both girls are married, employed and have mortgages. The oldest is a Captain in the Army - currently stationed at Camp Liberty in North Carolina. The youngest is a Physical therapist here in Cheyenne. |
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