San Bernardino County Medical Society
2004 Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community
presented to
Horace D. Orr, M.D.
This seventeenth-day of June, in the year two thousand four
Dr. Horace Orr is a country doctor. This is an apt description of the recipient of the 2002 Plessner Award, presented each year by the California Medical Association to a physician who "best exemplifies the practice and ethics of a rural practitioner. It is his lifetime of dedication to patient care that has earned him the admiration of his colleagues and the loyalty of his patients, and it is for this reason we honor him with the Medical Society's 2004 Merlin A. Hendrickson, M.D. Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community.
Dr. Orr first set up practice in Victorville in 1946 and since then he has provided tender, loving care to the citizens of the high-desert areas of San Bernardino County that include Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia. In his first year of practice, he was the only doctor in the high desert. During the early years, his patients were spread across the desert far from the nearest hospitals, yet he made house calls day and night, even to remote areas that could be reached only by dirt roads. Even as the area around him grew, he never gave up being a country doctor.
The loyalty expressed by Dr. Orr's patients is sufficient evidence of the high regard they hold for him. Blessed with remarkably good health for a 91-year old man, this compassionate physician continues working for the Hospice Association in the high desert where he treats and comforts patients with devastating and terminal illnesses. For many years after he closed his practice, he continued to make house calls to those long-time patients of his who would insist on having no other doctor. He is a very ethical practitioner, loved and liked by everyone.
Dr. Orr has been a member of SBCMS/CMA since 1947 and over the years he served on numerous committees and on the Board of Directors. He is currently an active member of our Historical Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice. It should also be noted that Dr. Orr served on the Southern California Physician Insurance Exchange (SCPIE) board, and he served as Chief of Staff for both St. Mary Regional Medical Center and Victor Valley Community Hospital.
For 58 remarkable years of continuous service to the health and welfare of the high desert community, we are pleased to present the 2004 Merlin A. Hendrickson, M.D. Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community to Horace D. Orr, M.D., an extraordinarily compassionate physician who has dedicated his life to serving his rural community.
Samuel G.
Wilson, M.D.
President
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