ORR, Ralph Gordon


Ralph Gordon Orr, a highly regarded reporter for the Detroit Free Press who lived in retirement for 21 years at Gun Lake, passed away Thursday, October 27, 2011 in Kalamazoo at the age of 91.
Ralph was born in Portland, Oregon on July 22, 1920 and grew up in Three Rivers, Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1942.
Ralph then enlisted in the U.S. Merchant Marine and served with distinction in the Pacific and Mediterranean, rising to the rank of lieutenant j.g. At the end of hostilities, he returned to Michigan to marry Margaret Eleanor Arnett of Battle Creek. Ralph and Margaret moved to Dansville, New York, where Ralph became editor and part-owner of the Dansville Breeze newspaper. They remained there until 1960, when the family moved to Detroit. Ralph worked there as an insurance investigator and journalist, and then edited the newspaper and did field work for what then was Local 705 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union in Detroit led by noted labor and women's rights leader Myra Wolfgang.
In 1968, he joined the Free Press as its labor writer, a position he held until he retired in 1985. Ralph, a simple, direct and prolific writer, became the journalistic authority in Detroit for labor news. He paid particular attention to the powerful United Auto Workers during the reigns of Walter Reuther, Leonard Woodcock and Doug Fraser, and to the Teamsters union. When former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in July 1975, Ralph spent months investigating the case, becoming a leading journalistic voice in regard to that enduring mystery.
Ralph's wife of 40 years, Margaret, died in 1986 shortly after he retired. He moved to a home on the shore of Gun Lake in west Michigan, and in 1989 married Helen Krantz of Rochester, Michigan. They lived there until 2009, when failing health took Ralph and Helen to the Springs at the Fountains Nursing Home. Helen died October 9.
Ralph is survived by a daughter, Wendy Vandlen of Kalamazoo; a son, Steve (Leslie) Orr of Rochester, New York; a sister, Marilyn (Herbert) Steele of Frankenmuth; five grandchildren, one great-grandchild and five nephews.
A private service and interment will take place at Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Kalamazoo Humane Society, 4239 S. Westnedge Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008.
Friends may share a memorial at www.avinkcremation.com
To read a news obituary about Ralph in the Detroit Free Press, go here:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110290350

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