Robert D. Orr

Infobox Officeholder
name=Robert D. Orr


imagesize=175px
title=45th Governor of Indiana
term_start=January 13 1981
term_end=January 9 1989
predecessor=Otis R. Bowen
successor=Evan Bayh
birth_date=birth date|1917|11|17
birth_place=Ann Arbor, Michigan
death_date=death date and age|2004|03|10|1917|11|17
death_place=Indianapolis, Indiana
party=Republican
lieutenant=John M. Mutz
spouse=Joanne Wallace

Robert Dunkerson Orr (November 17 1917 - March 10 2004) was an American political leader and Governor of Indiana from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the United States Republican Party.

Life Before Politics

Orr was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but was reared in Evansville, Indiana. Orr graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1940 and was then admitted to Harvard Business School. At Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Because of the outbreak of World War II, he left Harvard to join the U.S. Army eventually rising to the rank of Major. For his service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.

After the War, Orr entered into the family business, Orr Iron Company, and became active in Republican politics of Vanderburgh County.

Entrance into Politics

Orr entered state level politics when he was elected in 1968 from Evansville to the Indiana State Senate. He served there until 1973, when he became lieutenant governor during the administration of popular Republican Governor Otis R. Bowen. Orr was elected to succeed Bowen as governor in 1980, having defeated the Democrat John Hillenbrand, 1,257,383 (57.7 percent) to 913,116 (41.9 percent) As governor he oversaw the reform of the Indiana educational system. In 1984, he defeated State Senator Wayne Townsend of Hartford City to win a second term as governor: 1,146,497 (52.8 percent of the two-party vote) to 1,036,832 (47.2 percent). In the 1984 election, Orr hence polled 110,886 fewer votes than he had in 1980, and his overall percent dropped by 4.9. ["Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections", 2005 edition]

In 1986, Orr served as President of the Council of State Governments.

After his terms as governor, Orr was named by U.S. President George H. W. Bush as the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, a position that he held until 1992.

After Politics

After he left his ambassadorship, Orr established a consulting firm called the Alliance for Global Commerce, which focused on international trade and export issues.

In 2000, he divorced his wife Joanne "Josie" Wallace. In 2001, at the age of eighty-three, he married Mary K. Davis. Orr died at the age of eighty-six at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis from complications following kidney surgery. He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

References

ee also

*List of Governors of Indiana

External links

* [http://www.in.gov/history/4104.htm Biography from the Indiana Historical Bureau]
*findagrave|8523758