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Former Gulf Oil Executive Dies

Posted on: Friday, 7 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Oct. 6--Charles Prentiss Orr, a retired Gulf Oil Corp. executive who served on numerous community boards, died Monday at UPMC Shadyside following a fall in his Squirrel Hill home.

Mr. Orr, 80, had dealt with the effects of Alzheimer's disease in recent years. He volunteered to take part in drug trials at the University of Pittsburgh's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, in hopes that others might benefit someday.

His research involvement fit Mr. Orr's profile as a thoughtful, generous man who had volunteered on the boards of Eye and Ear Hospital and Phipps Conservatory, among other organizations. He also was a junior warden at Calvary Episcopal Church and had been president of the Pittsburgh Golf Club.

Mr. Orr was raised in Shadyside and attended Shady Side Academy, Hotchkiss School and Yale University before settling back in Pittsburgh in the early 1950s for a lengthy corporate career at Gulf. He started as a salesman, carrying traveling kits with items like lollipops and pencils bearing the Gulf name, and finished in 1985 as director of corporate planning. He played a key role in researching future trends for the company and its product lines.

His greatest passion was tending a wide-ranging vegetable garden, which had been a hobby since childhood. In retirement, he started a seed catalogue business for special types of lettuce he grew. Over the years, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelons, asparagus and more sprouted in the terraced beds behind Mr. Orr's stately Aylesboro Avenue home.

He is survived by his wife, Paula Welles Orr; three sons, David Welles, of Haleiwa, Hawaii, C. Prentiss Jr., of Fox Chapel, and Paul Welles, of Washington, D.C.; a daughter, Margery Grahame Harlow, of Boulder, Colo.; a sister, Margaret O. Childs, of Sewickley; and six grandchildren.

Friends will be received at the Orr home, 5452 Aylesboro Ave., from 4 to 7 p.m. today. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Calvary Episcopal Church, 215 Shady Ave., with private burial in Allegheny Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Good Grief Center for Bereavement, 510 10th Ave., Munhall 15120, or The Pittsburgh-Muskoka Foundation, 525 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh 15129.

Arrangements are by John A. Freyvogel Sons Funeral Home, Shadyside.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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CVX,

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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