By Traci Chapman
Published on January 12, 2007

A Canadian County employee died Wednesday after a 60-foot piece of steel gas pipe fell off a truck and onto his chest.

District 2 foreman Larry Orr, 42, was helping load the pipe onto a trailer in the shop yard with other workers when the pipe struck him in the leg, knocking him off balance and to the ground. The pipe then rolled off the trailer onto his upper body.

Although emergency workers were able to revive Orr at the scene, he later died during transit to Parkview Hospital.

Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Oklahoma Department of Labor, is investigating the accident. PEOSH has authority in this case because Orr worked for a municipal entity rather than a private employer.

Director Diana Jones said an investigation is standard in any work-related death. Preliminary findings will be available “in the near future,” Jones said.
The cause of the accident and any subsequent investigation have faded into the background for those who knew Orr best because, County Clerk Phyllis Blair said, it is “inconceivable that he really could be gone.” Compounding the loss and pain, she said, is the fact that Orr’s wife, Christine, is also a county employee and friend. Christine Orr works in Blair’s office.

Blair worked with Orr for 21 years. She said as word spread of Orr’s accident Wednesday and Thursday, shock turned to grief and even laughter, as friends and co-workers talked about how he had touched their lives.

“Larry Orr was unlike anybody you ever met,” she said. “He instinctively knew if someone was having a bad day, was upset or mad. He would just say something to make you laugh, and it was all better. He was magic that way.”

County Commissioner Don Young had been Orr’s boss for several years. Young said Orr, who had been a county employee since 1985, was not only an invaluable employee, but also the backbone of his crew and a good friend.

“He was my right hand,” Young said. “He was the top man. It is going to be hard to get along without him. He was just like a son.”

Second Deputy Commissioner Teresa Ramsey said she always liked when Orr came into the commissioners' offices.

“He just made your day,” she said. “He had that smile, that laugh and those jokes. I can’t even express how much we’ll miss him.”

Commissioner Phil Carson said Orr was a huge asset for the county.

“He was a great worker who motivated people and worked so hard,” he said. “He was a wonderful fella. It’s hard to imagine the (District 2) shop without him.”

Orr’s infectious humor was a highlight to all who knew him, but his friend, Monte Preno, said it was his fierce loyalty — to his family, to his friends and to the county — that made him so special.

“He was somebody that always looked after his friends,” Preno said. “It sounds corny, but he never met a stranger.”

Preno and Orr were avid Oklahoma City Blazers fans — they hadn’t missed a game all year, he said — and those games are among Preno’s best memories.

“I’ve loved the Blazers for years,” he said. “Larry’s wife won some tickets for him, and we went to the game. We went to another, and he was hooked. Next thing I knew, he said, ‘Hey, let’s get season tickets.’ And so that’s what we did. He was hooked.”

Characteristically for Orr, Preno said, he made friends at those games.

“I kind of knew a few of the people who sat around us,” he said. “But Larry — he knew everybody sitting around us. He just would start talking to someone, and you knew he had just made another friend.”

El Reno resident Tim Brothers had an informal barbecue business with Orr for several years.

“We called it Fat Boys, and we would just cook for people we knew — friends, things like that,” he said. “It kind of slowed down, but I had more good times with Larry than I ever could remember.”

Brothers said his 25-year friendship with Orr was one of the most valued of his life.

“He was a friend beyond all friends,” he said. “He was just like my brother. It’s so hard to think of him being gone, but I guess God wanted someone up there who could make him laugh. Larry’s the one to do that.”

El Reno Mayor Matt White said Orr’s loss is a loss not just for his friends and family, but for the city and the entire county.

“I’ll always remember his laughter and his jokes,” White said. “My life’s better for knowing him.”

County offices will be closed Monday until 1 p.m. so employees can attend Orr’s funeral, and the county commissioners meeting has been rescheduled to 11 a.m. Tuesday.