Professor Gordon Stewart Orr: 18 January 1926-16 March 2015.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 May 2015
• Author: Keith, Kenneth

Members of the NZIIA were very saddened to learn of the death of Gordon Orr, who served as president from 1964 to 1968, a member of the Standing Committee and a longstanding honorary vice-president. His interest in international affairs had been sparked by the NZIIA's major international conference in Palmerston North in January 1959, of which he was the organising secretary.

Gordon's funeral service was at Te Herenga Waka Marae, Victoria University of Wellington. One of his successors as president, I spoke at the funeral and the following tribute consists of extracts from that eulogy and draws on the eulogy given by Sir Edward Taihakurei Durie

Gordon Orr completed both a BA and an LLM at Victoria University, a most unusual combination 60 plus years ago. In the course of that study he undertook research on social policy legislation for a triumvirate of professors, including R.O. McGechan and EL.W. Wood. In Shakespeare's terms, Gordon played many parts, private and public. I will refer to four public parts--as legal practitioner, as public service administrator, as academic and as a...