Dr. Lowell Orr

Lowell P. Orr was born on December 11, 1930. to Fred B. and Clione E. (Yaple) Orr. He was raised on a farm nine miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio, and because he spent much of his childhood wandering the fields, forests, and streams of northern Ross County, he developed a love of natural history early in his life. Lowell was the youngest of four children, each one year apart, born during the depression years on the family farm. The “stair step kids” included his oldest brother Marcus T., followed by Thoburn L., and his sister Evelyn Orr Reisinger. His family survived the depression years by selling up to 7 tons of honey per year to those traveling along Route 23 where they lived, and the farm is still in existence over 150 years later. Lowell said, “On December 11, 1930, my oldest brother Marcus at the age of 3 arose from his bed and walked down the steps of our ancient farm house on Orr Road in Ross County (old Rt. 23) and entered our living room. To his surprise he saw his mother there holding me, a new baby, in her arms. His immediate response was to say, ‘Mommie, we mustn’t have too much babies!” This comment made complete sense to him since he was living with two other siblings, Thoburn, age 2, and Evelyn, age 1. My mother undoubtedly had a few thoughts about this since this was the middle of the Great Depression which began in 1929, the farming income of her husband was minimal, and she no longer had the income from her teaching. But thank God she hung on to me and I was fortunate to begin life in a wonderful family.’”

As a student at Kingston-Union High School, Lowell participated in both basketball and softball and sang in many musical groups. Throughout his life, vocal music was always one of his major interests. Since there were only 21 boys in the high school, it was not difficult to make the first team of these sports although playing softball on a cow pasture was a bit of a challenge. After graduating in 1948 as valedictorian of his class of nine students, he followed a teacher’s recommendation that he enroll at Miami University. 

 During his freshman year, he participated in few activities and spent most of his time studying because he was concerned whether he could compete with students from big city schools. But he made the Dean’s List, and when his parents received a letter from the dean complimenting their son on his academic achievement, they returned a letter to their son bragging on his academic achievement but ended their letter with the comment that he should now consider getting a life.

 And so he did. He pledged Sigma Chi fraternity, became president of his pledge class, sang in the Choral Union, became president of the Miami University Glee Club, and as song leader of the fraternity, marched 90 young men down the streets of Oxford on a weekly basis to a girls’ dormitory where they serenaded a young coed sitting in a window with a candle. The quality of this group of singers under Lowell’s direction was noted when they won the interfraternity sing along on Mother’s Day with their singing of “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.” It was wonderful that his mother was there to witness this competition with the other 16 fraternities.

 As one might expect, with all of these activities plus numerous parties and week-end activities, Lowell’s grades plummeted. But as he said on numerous occasions, because of his interaction with quality students, these were among the best four years of his life. He learned how to interact with others, developed leadership skills, and developed theories as to how quality teaching should be done. He graduated from Miami in 1952 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and minors in mathematics and business.

 Lowell began his teaching career teaching biology at Huntington Rural School in the hills of southern Ohio where he taught for three years. After meeting a Kent State University biology professor while judging science projects at a science fair at Ohio University, he began his graduate work at Kent State. Highly motivated to demonstrate to others that his academic skills were better than his grades at Miami indicated, he obviously succeeded because after two years of graduate work, he had obtained a 4.0 average in all biology courses and was offered a job in the biology department if he obtained a Ph.D. after completing his Masters at Kent State. 

 While at Kent State, Lowell worked two summers as a naturalist at Camp Whitewood, a beautiful 4-H camp in the hills and ravines of Ashtabula County. At this camp, Lowell became hooked on salamanders and decided that his Ph.D. research had to be done on salamanders where they evolved in the southern Appalachian Mountains. This led him to the University of Tennessee, the closest university with a Ph.D. program to the Smoky Mountains where he wanted to do his research.

 Lowell entered the doctoral program at UT in 1959 and after two wonderful years conducting research on red-cheeked salamanders in the Smokies, became a full-time biology instructor at Kent State in 1961, received his Ph.D. in 1962, and continued to teach and conduct research at Kent State until 2010. 

 Lowell’s major teaching and research area of vertebrate ecology led him into field studies on competition and predation in amphibian and reptile populations with salamanders as his major focus. He was also highly interested in teaching methods and this interest caused him to develop a highly popular non-thesis master’s degree in Biological Sciences (M.S. in BSCI) that graduated 85 students during his tenure at Kent State. His teaching career at Kent State involved teaching Organic Evolution, Experimental Methods in Biology, College Biology Teaching, Vertebrate Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology, and Ecology, Evolution, and Society.

Lowell’s success as a university professor reflected the quality of the teachers and students in his department; it was a wonderful association. Among other awards and services, he received the Kent State Distinguished Teaching Award, two College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Development Awards, the Herbert Osborn Award from the Ohio Biological Survey for making an exceptional contribution to the knowledge of Ohio fauna and flora, was a Fellow in the Ohio Academy of Sciences, advised and directed the research of 14 Ph.D. students and 14 M.A. students, served as director of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, and was summer chair of the department for nine years. 

The major event of his early years as a professor at Kent State was in having as one of his students his future wife, Gerry Dunch. Gerry, a graduate of Maple Heights High School where she was valedictorian of her class, was a student in Lowell’s Organic Evolution class and later served as his secretary. They were married in July of 1964 and built the house that became a home for 58 years. After graduation she taught biology at Cuyahoga Falls High School for three years.

 Another event that occurred that first year of Lowell’s teaching career at Kent State was the release of 16 black squirrels on the Kent State campus. In 1961, Lowell worked with former grounds superintendent of Kent State Larry Wooddell and Bill “Biff” Staples as well as Gordon Elliott of Davey Tree to trap black squirrels in Ontario, Canada, and reintroduce them to the campus after previously existing squirrels had been hunted out of the area. The three men trapped and transported them, and Lowell provided knowledge and help in getting them to adapt to their new environment. In his words, “these squirrelly transfer students [have had] a wonderful impact on our university and community.”

 In 1972 and 1974, Lowell and Gerry welcomed their daughter Erin and son Ryan to the family. He filled their childhoods with adventures in the Smokies on vacation in mountain streams and Gatlinburg artisan shops, trips out West to national parks, and summer hours in Hilton Head, but the Kent community provided the bulk of memories with picnics in the Dansel Street cul-de-sac, bike rides to Walls Elementary, trips to Stoddards, and walks with family dogs over the years. 

 Upon retirement in 2010, Lowell threw his time and energy into family and community service. He commented, “I vividly recall a brief lecture mother gave to all four of us siblings as we rode in the car across the county line road from our farm to Kingston. She said if we did not become involved in community service, we would not amount to much.” Lowell amounted to a great deal, working with the Garden Club of Kent and coordinating two locations of gardens and writing grants for more than $100,000 in funds to be used for building a greenhouse, pavilion, water garden, and awarding youth scholarships. When not in the gardens, he continued to travel with Gerry to the Smokies or follow his daughter Erin and son-in-law Dave Merritt around the country as the Air Force moved them from state to state. He and Gerry always arrived with the classic red cooler (circa 1970s); a crate of books, magazines, and newspapers; a set of binoculars; a blue American Tourister train case of toiletries and hearing aid batteries; and a bag of snacks. At home, their time was shared with their son Ryan in front of fires on cold nights and in their gardens on hot summer days. Ryan’s devotion to both parents in their final years rivals none as he made sure they had all that they needed, giving them the greatest gift of all: his time and ever-present, devoted companionship. He doted on his grandsons Matt born in 1998 and Ben in 2001. He taught them to be curious about what was around them, always ready with a fish seine, butterfly net, collecting bag, or jar filled with all sorts of creatures to delight young boys. He taught others to ask “Why?” when faced with new questions. A book he gave his grandchildren called A Sense of Wonder illustrates his strategy as a teacher, mentor, parent and grandparent as he helped the next generation fall in love with the natural world. When the boys brought home the loves of their lives, Katie and Alli, Lowell couldn’t have been happier or prouder that his two favorite boys had found Miami girls that encompass all of the “high quality” standards he valued in human beings.

 Lowell’s legacy is as broad as it is unique. That love of salamanders that started back in the 1960’s at Camp Whitewood? It became a life passion so strong that he approached the Ohio Legislature and in 2010, the spotted salamander became the State Amphibian of the Buckeye State.

 Those unique black squirrels that roam Kent but were transplants from Canada and their connection to Lowell is immortalized in Kathy Frazier and Deborah Walker’s children’s book And Now You Know, Too where the curious character of Bucky the squirrel and his new friend Fletcher asked the question “Why?” and found answers to the question of where Kent black squirrels come from by interviewing Dr. Orr in his backyard.

 For those who love watching things grow and bloom, check out the Kent Community Gardens on the corner of Season’s Road and Ravenna Road at the Ode to Joy Farm where there is still the sign for Lowell Way next to that green house he was able to get a grant for and fund.

 What Lowell would value most, however, is the legacy he leaves behind in people: the students who became teachers, the neighbors who built a community, the fellow gardeners who continue to value the growth of what the earth brings, and of course his family including his children, his nieces and nephews and their children, and especially his grandchildren. The love of learning, of the natural world, and of leading people with his intelligence and positivity are all pieces of Lowell that will live in those whose lives he touched, influenced, and inspired. 

He was a culinary lover of sweet corn, peanut M&Ms, and gin and tonics. Nothing made him happier than sitting in front of the fire with family, especially around the holidays with one of Gerry’s great meals in the oven and gifts nearby as snow fell outside the window. He could shake his hips like a hula dancer and preferred to do it while singing Happy Birthday to his grandsons. No waiter or waitress was safe from personal questions about their interests and futures, and he never made it through a mountain tunnel without honking. If you were part of a team that helped Dad navigate his final years, then you know he thanks you again for “doing it all” and for all of those who did, “Thanks for stopping by.”

 He and Gerry will be inurned at Standing Rock Cemetery, here in their beloved Kent with a front row view of the Cuyahoga River where he became an award-winning surveyor of fish. They will be surrounded by the people of Kent that made this the community they loved. Hopefully the black squirrels will regularly skitter through, chirping and chattering, and the blue herons will wade by for a while in the river below them. Some ashes will be spread in the heart of the natural beauty they loved on one of their favorite Smoky Mountain trails in the spring when the wild flowers whisper their lullabies, the salamanders make their run, and the Little River gurgles its laughter. 

 Dad loved the life he lived. He repeatedly said that he wished he could live it over and over again, because it was just perfect. He will be missed so much, but know that he would want us all to “Live it up! Woo Wee!” In memory of Dr. Lowell Preston Orr, please never lose the sense of wonder and curiosity when it comes to the natural world, look for the positive in all that surrounds you wherever you are, and always be like the warmth of the fire that draws people in for good stories and even better memories. 

 Written by Lowell Orr and Erin Orr Merritt

Cremation services in the care of Bissler and Sons Funeral Home and Crematory, 628 W. Main St. Kent, OH 44240.