Carolyn Orr

Carolyn Orr

Carolyn Orr, a devoted servant of Christ, was born in 1925 in Brownsville, Texas. She passed peacefully from this world into her heavenly home on August 7, 2024, a month shy of her 99th birthday.

When she was a junior in high school, Carolyn dedicated her life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. She graduated from Columbia Bible College where, in her words, she was "taught, challenged, and encouraged to a continual fellowship and submission to the Lord." At a college retreat, she heard a missionary ask, "What would you do if you only had the Bible in the foreign language you studied in high school?" God used this and Carolyn answered His call to become a Bible translator.

After teaching Bible in North Carolina public schools for two years, Carolyn graduated from the Summer Institute of Linguistics seminar at the University of Oklahoma. She then applied and was accepted into Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL. Later she earned a Master of Linguistics from Indiana University and pursued doctoral studies at the University of Texas.

Part of her SIL training included six months of Jungle Camp in Mexico, with sessions including botany, butchering, carpentry and coding-Morse code, that is. She flew alone to her first assignment in Peru, the only country in South America where Wycliffe was working at the time. In 1953, with primary support from Grace Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Carolyn was in the first group of Wycliffe translators to enter Ecuador. She began work in the Quichua language, one of thousands in the world that did not yet have a written form.

Working with other translators and the Quichua people, Carolyn produced a variety of written materials: dictionaries, school texts, grammar analysis, simple story books, and portions of Scripture. She became fluent in three dialects of Lowland Quichua, and, in 1984, the Pastaza Quichua group asked her to work on a New Testament in their dialect. She accepted the offer even though she would be the only translator on the project. Eight years later, with the help of native speakers and advanced computer technology, Diospa Shimi, the New Testament in Pastaza Quichua, was published.

When Carolyn was 92 years old, she traveled back to her church in Limoncocha to present the gift of a small book of parables that she transcribed from a recording by the first teacher-preacher in the village. As always, she was surrounded and greeted by people calling her "Tia Carolina," and they all wanted photos-this time, selfies taken with their own cell phones.

A few years ago, Carolyn wrote: "I'm glad God chose me to be part of His Kingdom, has loved me beyond all imagination, and works to fulfill His own plan to make me like the Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy to be praised and I praise Him."

Carolyn is preceded in death by her parents, Mitchell and Nina Orr, her two brothers, Robert and William, and her longtime friend and valued colleague Patricia Kelley. She is survived by her sister, Elizabeth (Betty) Yarbrough of Lufkin, Texas, sister-in-law Barbara Orr of Ruidoso, New Mexico, dear friend Mary Mertz, many nieces, nephews, cousins, and a host of others who have called her "Aunt Carolyn."

Gifts of remembrance can be made to the Carolyn Orr Endowed Scholarship Fund at Columbia International University (formerly Columbia Bible College). This perpetual scholarship is dedicated to assist students who are entering vocational mission service. Any mention of the Carolyn Orr scholarship will help ensure the gift gets to the correct fund.

Send checks to:
Columbia International University
c/o Advancement Office
7435 Monticello Rd.
Columbia, SC 29203

One can also give online with a credit card, Paypal, or Venmo, by going to: https://fundraise.givesmart.com/form/_tCOMA?vid=17fbzv

When you go to this site, the first option asks what you want to give to. Choose Scholarships from the drop down menu. The second line will ask what scholarship you would like to support. Please enter The Carolyn Orr Scholarship Fund.

A celebration of Carolyn's life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on September 21, 2024, at the Event Center at Dallas International University, 7500 W Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas, Texas 75236.

Those who cannot drive to Duncanville should be able to view the event with the following Zoom meeting information:

Topic: Carolyn Orr Memorial
Time: September 21, 2:00 p.m. central time
Zoom
Meeting ID: 920 3119 7653

It is also possible to obtain a live stream link by emailing eventcoordinator_ilc@sil.org