Richard Green Lugar was born April 4, 1932, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Shortridge High School, received a B.A. from Denison University, and then received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Pembroke College at Oxford University, where he earned a second B.A. and an M.A. After completing his degrees at Oxford, Lugar voluntarily enlisted in the United States Navy and worked in naval intelligence from 1956 to 1960. He then returned to Indiana to help manage the family's farm in Marion County and the family food machinery firm, Thomas L. Green and Company.

Lugar's first elective office was as a member of the Indianapolis Public Schools Board of Commissioners. He served on the school board from 1964 until 1967, when he ran successfully for mayor of Indianapolis. He served two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, from 1968 to 1976, during which time he oversaw the merger of city and county governments into Uni-Gov, which laid the foundation for transformations in the city of Indianapolis and its governing structures.

Lugar first ran for the office of United States Senator in 1974, but was defeated by the incumbent, Senator Birch Bayh. In 1976, however, Lugar defeated three-time incumbent Senator Vance Hartke. Lugar was sworn in as U.S. Senator from Indiana in January 1977, thus beginning the first of what would be his six terms in office, making him the longest-serving United States Senator in Indiana history. He was active in developing agricultural and urban policy and was committed to work in the area of foreign policy. His foreign policy activities included his work to pass sanctions legislation against the apartheid government of South Africa in 1985, his work as an election observer in the Philippines in 1986, and his long-term work with Senator Sam Nunn to develop the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. The Nunn-Lugar Program was passed by Congress in 1991; its purpose was to destroy nuclear weapons and materials in the countries of the former Soviet Union after the Soviet Union's collapse. The program was later expanded to include biological and chemical weapons in areas of the world outside of the former Soviet Union. For their work with the Nunn-Lugar Program, Senators Lugar and Nunn were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Lugar served on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for the entirety of his Senate career. He served as chair of the full committee from 1995-2000 and of the Subcommittee on Agricultural Research and General Legislation from 1981-1984. Additionally, he served on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from 1977-1982, chairing the Subcommittee on Securities in 1981-1982. He served on the Select Committee on Intelligence from 1977-1984 and again from 1993-2002, chairing the Subcommittee on Analysis and Production from 1981-1984. His tenure on the Committee on Foreign Relations began in 1979 and continued until 2012. He served as chair in 1985-1986 and in 2003-2006, as ranking member from 1995-2000, and as ranking minority member from 2007-2012. He also chaired the Subcommittee on European Affairs from 1981-1984 and 1995-1996, serving as ranking minority member from 1991-992 and ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and Peace Corps Affairs from 1989-1992.

In his bid for reelection to a seventh term in 2012, Lugar was defeated in the Republican primary by State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who subsequently lost the election to Democrat Joe Donnelly.

Lugar's work outside of Congress included the Richard G. Lugar Program in Politics and Public Service established in 1994 at Denison University, on whose Board of Trustees he began serving in 1966; the Lugar Center for Tomorrow's Leaders, now known as the Richard G. Lugar Academy, established in 1977 at the University of Indianapolis; and the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy established in 2007 at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis. In January 2013 he established The Lugar Center in Washington, D.C., which focuses on global policy issues such as non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global food security, foreign aid effectiveness, and bipartisan governance. In January 2013 he also joined the faculty of Indiana University-Bloomington as Professor of Practice in the School of Global and International Studies. In the spring of 2019, the school was renamed the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies in honor of Senator Lugar and Congressman Lee Hamilton.

Lugar passed away on April 28, 2019, at the age of 87.