Michael F. Orr

Michael was born in Forest City, IA in 1927 to Dr. Kinley T. Orr, a dentist, and his wife Nancy, a teacher, journalist and homemaker. He was educated in the Minneapolis Public Schools, graduating from West High School in 1944 as salutatorian of his class. During his school years he worked long hours at his family’s mink farm, which his father had started as a hobby but which grew to much larger than hobby size.

He served in the US Navy from 1945-46.

Michael attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1949 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Law. He received his Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1951. At the law school he served as the student editor in chief of the Minnesota Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

In 1951 he became an Associate at the New York City law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy (now Milbank). He became a partner in 1963, and retired as a senior partner in 1990. He served on the firm’s Legal Personnel Committee and its Management Committee.

At Milbank, Michael represented banks both domestic and international. His work was not limited to transactional or regulatory matters but covered a wide range of issues. He worked with lawyers and governments in 5 continents and numerous countries. Much of his legal work involved bank financing for the petroleum industry.

Michael was a member of the New York City Bar, the New York Bar, and the International Bar Association. At the New York City Bar he served on the Committee on Uniform State Laws, the Committee on Corporate Law, and the Committee on Minorities in the Profession. He also served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

Upon retirement from Milbank, he took assignments from the International Executive Service Corps in Cairo and then in Prague, and he participated in the Central and Eastern European Initiative of the American Bar Association.

In 1953, Michael married his wife Sally, a journalist who he had first met at the University of Minnesota. and they had four children, Mary Kay Orr and Joseph Orr, both of Brooklyn, Sarah Read (David) of Columbia, Missouri, and Nancy Shepherd (Jim) of Tallahassee, Florida. The family moved from Brooklyn Heights to Montclair, New Jersey in 1958. Michael and Sally returned to Manhattan in 1979.

The family also had a seasonal residence on Quince Street in Nantucket from 1977 to 2017. There they enjoyed swimming, biking, hiking, boating, and gardening.

Memorial contributions can be made to All Saints Church - allsaintsnyc.org