Orr made his decision in 1995 when he entered the police academy, embarking on a career path that cost him his life Tuesday while he searched for a missing woman.
He never looked back, colleagues said, and eventually paid law enforcement's ultimate price.
A volley of 21 rifle shots echoed over the man's hometown Saturday as his tight-knit community joined law enforcement officers from across the state in mourning the fallen officer.
The Uintah County sheriff's detective died last week from injuries suffered when his helicopter hit a power line and plunged into the Green River during a search and rescue mission for Kimberly Turney. The Jensen woman's body was found Thursday, and police are investigating her death.
As family members gathered around Orr's burial plot this weekend, two search helicopters rumbled over a sagebrush-speckled ridge nearby. One lingered overhead. The other trailed into the distance in memory of the officer who never returned.
A massive American flag fluttered at the cemetery entrance, suspended between ladder trucks of the Roosevelt and Vernal fire departments.
Hundreds had assembled an hour before at the LDS Stake Center in Maeser. Police cruisers clogged the parking lot for what would become a lights-and-sirens procession to the cemetery grounds 15 miles away.
Family members wept for this 11-year police veteran, who leaves behind four children under the age of 12. They spoke of his love for cooking, his knack for listening and of his devotion to the young men of his Mormon congregation.
They also spoke of rough days ahead in coping with the man's untimely death, just two days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
"We ask that those hearts that are broken may be healed," prayed Troy Slaugh, a family friend.
Jerry Young, a fellow youth mentor with Orr, shook occasional laughs out of the otherwise somber funeral service as he spoke of his friend pasting a dog food label to a chili can, then eating the contents in front of the young men.
He talked of the man's love for his family and said he often jibed his buddy about making "a good wife someday" because of his propensity for cooking and cleaning.
Then, his voice broke. "Kevin was a just and honest man. It was his time to go."
The funeral procession then stretched through Uintah County's arid hills - textured with sagebrush, junipers and redrock - to Orr's resting place. There, Vernal police Sgt. Shawn Lewis watched the vehicles approach as a bagpiper rehearsed "Amazing Grace."
A tear trickled from beneath the officer's sunglasses. He spoke of working alongside Orr in law enforcement and of competing against him when the pair coached rival softball teams. He said the deputy's loss has left the community in profound "sadness."
He vowed that Orr's widow and four children "will be taken care of" as they enter the holiday season.
As for law enforcement, Lewis said their work goes on. "They'll pick up where they left off yesterday," he said. "But hopefully this will refresh the dangers in their mind."
jstettler@sltrib.com
