First Generation

1. Albert Edward DORR, son of Albert Ernest DORR and Laura Estelle BOSWELL, was born on 3 Sep 1918 in Macon, Fayette Co., TN, died on 13 Jul 1995 in Oklahoma City, OK at age 76, and was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Oklahoma City, OK.

The following was written by Dad in 1988.

My father was killed at the 2nd Street hill in McAlester six months before I was born. My mother moved to Macon, Tennessee where I was born on September 3, 1918. When I was three months old we moved back to McAlester. My brother, Ernest B., was ten years older than me, and my sister Dorothy was six years older.

Mother bought a nineteen-room house and took in roomers and boarders. We were across the street from the fire station and I was the mascot of the fire department in my younger years. I went to McAlester elementary, junior high and high schools. I worked for four years during high school at Dixieana Creamery and Bender Drug as a soda jerk. I graduated from McAlester High School in 1936.

Mother and I moved to Stillwater, rented a house and took in roomers and boarders. I worked my first year at Kennicutt Drug and enrolled in Electrical Engineering. The second year I was flunking in twelve hours of EE and was kicked out for the semester. Electrical Engineering was just not for me so I enrolled in Mechanical Engineering and made the Dean's Honor Roll. I pledged Acacia Fraternity, where I became social chairman, vice president and in my fourth year, president of my fraternity and also president of the Inter-Fraternity Council. During these years, I worked as fountain manager of the Midwest Creamery.

At the 1938 Acacia Christmas party I met Maxyne Zerby, who was dating my best friend Bus Walker. During the summer of 1939 I began dating Maxyne and we had a wonderful courtship. On June 1, 1940 at 9:00 PM we were married in Mr. and Mrs. Zerby's home by a blind Methodist preacher. Thirza Murphy, Ernest B. Dorr and Maxyne's brother Don Perry were present. We drove to Oklahoma City in my brother's car and arrived at the Biltmore Hotel. We spent two days at $4 .00 per day in Room 1707. We continued working and going to school and in January 1942 I graduated.

Maxyne was pregnant at the time and didn't get to graduate. On February 15, 1942 Edward Max was born at Stillwater Hospital with brain damage that caused cerebral palsy, although it took two years before a doctor told us what was wrong.

I started to work with Phillips Petroleum Company and we moved to Oklahoma City on September 23, 1943. Dana Michael was born and a month later we moved to Wichita, where I worked as a power plant engineer for Beech Aircraft. After eleven months of this, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy with the rank of Ensign and went to Officer's Candidate School for two months at Hollywood Beach, Florida. Maxyne, Ed and Dana moved in with her folks at Perry. I was assigned to LST 817 for duty in the Pacific.

Before I left my ship pulled in to New Orleans where Maxyne came down and spent a week with me. My ship then went through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast to Seattle. Maxyne came out and spent about a month with me as I went through firefighter and navigation schools. The next eighteen months were spent in action, where I was a navigator on the 817.

All through college, Phillips and Beech I was a 35mm photographer where I made pretty good extra money. So when my ship left Seattle, I bought all the development and enlarging needs and set up in my stateroom. My only major encounter was Okinawa, where 1400 ships and troops stormed the island. I was discharged in March 1946 with the rank of Lt. (jg).

While I was away Maxyne got her degree in Art. I came back to Oklahoma City and went to work as a mechanical engineer with OG&E. We bought our first house at 2401 NE 27th. It was a two-bedroom with built-in garage, which we later turned into a den and still later built a double garage. Later we built a 20"x16" den on the back.

On May 20, 1947 our third son Patrick B. was born. During this time I continued my photo business as well as a company called Cleaning Contractors, Inc., which specialized in washing walls and ceilings and cleaning kitchen grease ducts for restaurants.

In March 1948 I left OG&E and took a job as engineer with an air conditioning distributor and contractor named C. Robert Ingram Inc. The second year I was made sales manager and had a pleasant life until November 1953, when Lewis H. Carter, Sr. and I left Ingram and started Comfort Inc. We subleased from Ingram the first year and the second year had a 10,000 square foot building built at 1808 West Main, where we stayed for ten years. At the end of this period we build a 20,000 square foot building at 100 NE 34th and later added another 15,000 square feet. We worked hard and put in many long days and weeks. Our business was very successful and we had a very good reputation. We were both distributors for Chrysler Airtemp air conditioning and mechanical contractors.

On April 25, 1952 our fourth son, Jon Real Dorr, was born and on November 5, 1954 our fifth son, Kent Anthony Dorr, was born. In November 1958 we moved into our custom-built home in Wildewood, where we had six bedrooms, a swimming pool and paddle tennis court. We lived here happily until March 1970, when we moved into our custom-built 3500 square foot house in Lansbrook.

I always loved the water and boats, so in 1964 I bought a Lightning 19-foot centerboard sailboat. Maxyne didn't like jumping over the centerboard so the second year I traded it for an Aurora, a 21-foot keelboat, and joined the Oklahoma City Boat Club on Lake Hefner. I loved racing and won many trophies. As the Boat Club members began getting younger and I became older, I sold my boat to Ed and retired from sailing after about seventeen years.

At the end of 1979 I sold my Comfort Inc. interest to Carter. Although I retired, I kept my office in our building at 100 NE 34th where I come each day from 11:00 until 4:00, mainly to get away from the house, be around people and keep books on C&D Investments Company, which Carter and I started about 1961. During this time we owned two post offices in small towns, a 40-unit apartment house and about eight oil and gas wells. We still have the Comfort building, which pays Carter and me about $25,000 a year each. This also gives me time to read the Wall Street Journal and several trade and investment magazines.

It is now 1988 and I am seventy years old and have enjoyed a very full family life and have a wonderful wife and a bunch of kids and grandkids.

For more information see "Tales of the Al Dorr Family."

Albert married Maxyne C. ZERBY, daughter of Percy Brandon ZERBY and Ora Cecilia MILLION, on 1 Jun 1940 in Stillwater, OK. Maxyne was born on 11 Jun 1919 in Supply, OK, died on 30 Sep 2007 in Stillwater, OK at age 88, and was buried on 6 Oct 2007 in Memorial Park, Oklahoma City, OK.

Children from this marriage were:

          i.  Edward Max DORR was born on 15 Feb 1942 in Stillwater, OK.

         ii.  Dana Michael DORR was born on 23 Sep 1943 in Oklahoma City, OK.

        iii.  Patrick B. DORR was born on 20 May 1947 in Oklahoma City, OK.

         iv.  Jon Real DORR was born on 25 Apr 1952 in Oklahoma City, OK.

          v.  Kent Anthony DORR was born on 5 Nov 1954 in Oklahoma City, OK.