Bob Orr is the executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, having served in that capacity since 2004. Prior to that he served for 18 years in the North Carolina judiciary, first as a Court of Appeals judge and then for ten years on the N.C. Supreme Court. He is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill where he was a radio-TV-motion pictures major. After service in the U.S. Army, he graduated from UNC School of Law in 1975 and began the practice of law in Asheville.

Justice Orr has been involved in numerous civic and educational endeavors over the years. He has been an adjunct professor at N.C. Central University School of Law and Campbell University School of Law. He currently teaches a seminar on the N.C. Constitution at the UNC School of Law. He has served previously as chairman of the Secretary of the Interior's National Park System Advisory Board, as vice president of the N.C. Bar Association, and as a member of the Governor's Crime Commission and the Chief Justice's Innocence Commission.

Presently he serves on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of the Triangle, the George and Helen Hartzog Institute for the Parks at Clemson University, and on the St. Michael's Episcopal Church Mission Committee. He is married with four children and four grandchildren. Justice Orr resides in Raleigh but has maintained his voting residence in the Cane River Valley of Yancey County for more than 20 years.