He grew up in the Mt. Vernon area of Elizabeth Township. His house was steps away from Mt. Vernon Elementary School. He spent his youth in that area riding his bike and spending countless hours playing baseball. He was a member of the Boy Scouts, Troop 99, and the Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church, at which he became an Elder of the church and served on its Session. He was actively involved in the Drama Club through Junior and Senior High School. He played (mostly bench) on the 1976 WPIAL Championship Baseball team. He was Class President for the Class of 1977.

Buck graduated from Bucknell University in1981 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Chemistry. His next academic stop was the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he graduated in 1985. He served his internship at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh until 1986. He did his Radiology residency from 1986-1990 at West Virginia University in Morgantown. He served as Chief Resident from 1989-1990.

In 1990, Buck was a guest speaker for the Radiologic Technologist school graduation at which he urged the new graduates to buy a computer and learn how to use it. It was a very wise suggestion. He served a one-year Fellowship back at the UPMC Medical Center from 1990-1991 in Body Imaging, studying the roles of Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in characterizing and reporting the imaging features of diseases that were never able to be "seen" before. Buck was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Radiology for many years. After leaving for private practice, he continued giving lectures for medical students and radiology residents, as well as presentations for medical education meetings.

Upon completion of his fellowship, Buck practiced with his parents in their office in White Oak for 14 years. It was a practice that combined complete medical care and advanced medical imaging, a unique combination outside of hospitals at that time.

In 2004, Buck moved from his practice in White Oak to Greensburg where he originally joined Greensburg X-Ray Associates. He became the president of that group following a merger with Latrobe Hospital. He was the president of Radiologic Consultants, Ltd., for ten years, a multi-specialty group of radiologists of 25 doctors. That group has provided Radiology services for all of Westmoreland County for more than ten years, including three hospitals, two multi-specialty outpatient centers, and several small office radiology centers. He was the Chairman of Radiology for Excela Health for ten years.

Buck was involved early in his career in professional organizations which supported and promoted the specialty of Radiology. Some inspiration for this came from his mother, Dr. Ann Buck, who was also a Radiologist. At her urging and others in the Pittsburgh Radiology community, he was a member and ultimately President of the Pittsburgh Roentgen Society. He was also an active member of the Pennsylvania Radiological Society, serving as its President from 2006-2007. The Pa Radiological Society was a Chapter of the national Radiology organization, the American College of Radiology (ACR). Buck served the College as a Senior Councilor from Pennsylvania and on the Committee for Rural Practices, the Economics Committee and the Quality Committee. He was an author on a paper that reported on the early use of a quality reporting system used by radiologists voluntarily to track their performance on imaging studies, RADPEER. At the annual meeting of the ACR in 2010, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Radiology, an exclusive honor among radiologists which recognizes a person's service to organized Radiology and educational service to the specialty.

Buck has been married to Lorraine (Len) Buck for 30 years this month. She is a nurse by training and caught (and kept) his eye while he was a medical student. Lorraine has a Masters in Nursing and a Masters of Business Administration and presently is a healthcare consultant to hospitals across the country, specializing in cardiovascular services. They have two girls, Alissa and Amy. Alissa works for IBM and Amy is attending the University of Pennsylvania to get her Master's in Public Health. The family avidly golfs and is members of Edgewood Country Club in Churchill, PA. Dr. Buck served as the president of the club for five years. He started playing golf when he was 10 years old, and has not gotten much better.