Virgil Orr

Virgil L. Orr
Virgil L. Orr as Dean of Louisiana Tech University (1966)
Louisiana House of Representatives from District 12 (Lincoln and Union parishes)
In office 1988–1992
Preceded by	William R. Sumlin, Jr.
Succeeded by	Jay B. McCallum
Personal details
Born	(1923-02-02) February 2, 1923
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Myrtis Chandler Orr
Residence	Ruston, Lincoln Parish
Alma mater	Glenmora High School Louisiana Tech University Louisiana State University
Occupation	College professor and administrator
Religion	Baptist

Virgil L. Orr (born February 2, 1923) is a retired engineering professor and administrator at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, who served as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 12 (Lincoln and Union parishes) from 1988-1992.^[1]

Background

Orr graduated in 1940 from Glenmora High School in Glenmora in south Rapides Parish. He received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Louisiana Tech, where he helped to pay his expenses by working as a student food services waiter from 1940-1944.^[2] He procured his Master of Science and Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1948 and 1950, respectively.^[3][4] On September 1, 1952, Orr joined the Louisiana Tech faculty. In 1966, he was co-author with colleagues Charles A. Killgore and Woodrow W. Chew, Jr., also a registered petroleum engineer of the article, "Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium for the Hexamethyldisiloxane–n-Propyl Alcohol System," published in the Journal of Chemical and Engineering Data.^[5] He was later appointed "Dean of the College" and was serving as vice president of the university, under then president F. Jay Taylor, at the time of his retirement on June 30, 1980.^[6] Louisiana Tech honors Orr with the Virgil Orr Professorship in Chemical Engineering^[7] and the Virgil Orr Undergraduate Junior Faculty Award, presented to non-tenured instructors.^[8]

Legislative election

Orr led the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 1987, with 5,846 votes (44 percent), to the incumbent William R. Sumlin, Jr. (born 1943), also of Ruston, who polled 4,176 ballots (31 percent). Another 3,244 votes (24 percent) went to a third Democrat, Troy Lowe. Sumlin did not contest the November 21 general election, and Orr became representative-elect without a second round of balloting.^[9]

At some point after he left the legislature, Orr switched his affiliation to Republican.^[10]

Orr was himself unseated in the primary held on October 19, 1991, by fellow Democrat Jay B. McCallum (born 1960) of Farmerville, the seat of Union Parish, who prevailed, 8,286 (52 percent) to 7,528 (48 percent).^[11]

In 2002, Orr contributed to the unsuccessful candidacy of his then Fifth District U.S. representative, John Cooksey, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully in the nonpartisan blanket primary for the U.S. Senate. Six years earlier, he had contributed to the unsuccessful Republican senatorial candidate Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, with whom Orr served in the legislature. Both lost to the Democrat Mary Landrieu, who left the state legislature as Orr was arriving.^[12] In 2003, Orr supported the unsuccessful Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Randy Ewing, a former member of the Louisiana State Senate from Jackson Parish.^[13]

After leaving the legislature, Orr served a term on the Louisiana Ethics Board.^[3] In 2010, he was appointed to the Lincoln Parish Library Board.^[14]

He and his wife, the former Myrtis Chandler (born April 27, 1924), reside in Ruston. Orr is a Sunday school teacher at the Temple Baptist Church in Ruston.

References