Memorial for Ian Orme to be held Sept. 28

Contact for reporters:
Mary Guiden
(970) 491-6892
mary.guiden@colostate.edu

The Colorado State University community will honor the life, career and legacy of University Distinguished Professor Ian Orme at a special service Friday, Sept. 28, from 2 – 4:30 pm in the Lory Student Center, Ballrooms C & D. A reception will follow the service.

Orme, 65, passed away peacefully in his sleep June 19, while at his summer home in upstate New York. He was one of only two actively serving University Distinguished Professors to pass away since the UDP designation was created at Colorado State. (University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry John Stille died in a plane crash in 1989.)

Orme was one of the world’s leading experts in tuberculosis and immunology. He shaped the scientific understanding of tuberculosis in myriad ways, including pioneering the mouse and guinea pig models used around the world for tuberculosis research.

He is survived by his wife, Eileen, and his two sons, Joseph Allen Michael Orme and Robert James Steven Orme.

Read more about Orme from his friends and colleagues at CSU.

He was named a University Distinguished Professor in 2009, after joining the CSU faculty in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology in 1986. He became a full professor in 1995.

Over his more than three decades at CSU, Orme trained a number of young researchers who have now established their own tuberculosis programs around the world. One young researcher that he took under his wing was a veterinary pathologist named Tony Frank, now president of CSU and chancellor of the CSU System. Frank will be one of several speakers at the service.

Orme is remembered as an innovative, visionary and generous colleague whose research transformed our understanding of tuberculosis and its treatment.

Watch an interview with Orme, who explains his research and related vaccine development.

He leaves behind a legacy that will carry on through his family, friends and colleagues who trained under him, stood beside him, and have gone on to forge their own distinguished academic and research careers.

All those attending the event to honor Orme are invited to share a story about him, a man described by his friends as “larger than life.”

Those who want to make a contribution in Orme’s memory are invited to make donations payable to “CSU Foundation” and note “CVMBS Memorial Fund-Dr. Ian Orme” in the memo line of the check, or donate online.

Questions about the event? Please contact CSU Events at CSUEvents@colostate.edu or by phone at (970) 491-4601.