J. Edwin Orr

ORR, James Edwin. b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 12 January 1912; d. Asheville, North Carolina, 22 April 1987. As a young man he became a travelling evangelist, beginning in 1933, visiting many countries. It was during one of these visits, to an Easter Conference at Ngaruwahia, New Zealand in 1936, that he wrote the hymn by which he has become known, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart today’*. He later became assistant pastor of the People’s Church, Toronto, Canada; he was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1940, after which he was educated at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (MA 1941) and the Northern Baptist Seminary, Lombard, Illinois (ThD, 1943). He served as a US Air Force...