Namesake

William Edwin Orr (October 26, 1881 – October 7, 1965) was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Orr was born in Frisco, Utah Territory. Orr attended the University of Nevada, Reno and read law to enter the bar in 1912. He held a series of positions in Lincoln County, Nevada, first as a county clerk from 1906 to 1910, then country treasurer from 1911 to 1912, then district attorney from 1913 to 1918, and finally district judge from 1919 to 1939. He was a Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, appointed on March 2, 1939 and elected November of 1940. Orr served until 1945, including as Chief Justice from 1943 to 1945. 

On September 10, 1945, Orr was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Orr was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 19, 1945, and received his commission on September 28, 1945. He assumed senior status on January 1, 1956, serving in that capacity until his death at the age of 83 in 1965. The same year that the Orr Middle School opened.

Orr was born the son of a mining camp blacksmith. He and his wife Edith had two sons.