Notable for his work with both the United States Foreign Service and the U.S. State Department, Luers also served as the director of the high-profile Iran Project and as the president of the U.N. Association of the U.S.A. Apart from his diplomatic work, he served for over a decade as President and C.E.O. of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After graduating from Hamilton College, he earned a master's degree from Columbia University. In the late 1950s, he began his three-decade career in the U.S. Foreign Service.