The Art of Self Reinvention:
A Conversation with Terry Orr
Thursday, May 16
10–11:30am
GEB 3.312 (3rd floor Dean’s Conference room)
The College of Liberal Arts invites you to a talk with one of UT’s most interesting alums and dedicated students, Terry Orr. After decades of accomplishment in an astonishing variety of fields, Terry did something unusual: he went back to school. In 2018, Orr earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical Archaeology from UT Austin. Last summer, he participated in his second archaeological dig in Romania – at age 80. Orr is currently pursuing graduate study in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
Prior to his studies and work as a Teaching Assistant at UT, Terry earned degrees in Civil Engineering, and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and a captain in the Army Reserve. He enjoyed successful careers in international marine construction engineering, refinery management in Saudi Arabia, as the owner of an international offshore equipment business, as a school board president, a nonprofit board leader, and as the mayor of Bastrop. Terry also happens to be a certified hostage negotiator and a black belt in karate. You may know him best as the father of the Classics department’s Graduate Program Coordinator extraordinaire Beth Chichester, with whom he operated a dirt-work business in central Texas.
Throughout his life, Terry Orr has personified the will toward self-exploration and personal growth. Take a break from exams and come listen to one of the real “most interesting men in the world” reflect on how his fascinating work and civic commitments have led him to the study of the humanities at UT. This is likely the only talk you will attend that will include the sentence “I was in the Sierra Madres looking for gold when...”
Please join us. We would appreciate an RSVP by Monday, May 13.