Dave Lornie and Ken Orr - the third and second generation of Orrs pharmacists - celebrate 75 years of Orrs Pharmacy. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Dave Lornie and Ken Orr - the third and second generation of Orrs pharmacists - celebrate 75 years of Orrs Pharmacy. Photo / Michael Cunningham
It's been 75 years since Bill Orr opened the doors to Whangārei's Orrs Pharmacy - and a few things have changed since then.
Gone are the days where prescriptions were written in Latin so they could not be deciphered by the patients, and medicines are no longer packed into capsuleson site.
But one thing remains the same - the business is still in the family with three generations of Orr pharmacists.
Bill Orr's son Ken reckoned his dad, who passed away in 2009 aged 88, would be proud he and nephew Dave Lornie - Bill's grandson - followed in his footsteps.
"I think as all parents, he'd be very pleased. As people of the land and farmers like to see their families remain connected with the land they were on, this is very much a similar story," he said.
Ken said his father started the process of becoming a pharmacist just before the start of World War II and completed it on his return.
"In those days to become a pharmacist it was much more of an apprenticeship process which from memory took three years, where a fair portion of the qualification was done within the pharmacy and then they went off to external assessments."
On November 4, 1944 Bill opened Orrs Prescription Chemist on the corner of Cameron and James streets - where Pascoes, Flight Centre, a barber and K&K Fashions are now.
Ken said quite a bit had changed since his dad's days - originally creams and lotions were all made on site and medications were packed in sachets and then hand packed into the capsules on site.
Prescriptions were quite different too, he said.
"Originally prescriptions were written with secrecy at the centre of them, so they were written in Latin by the doctor and dispensed by the pharmacist and the patient really had no way of completely understanding what was on that prescription," he said.
In 1964 the pharmacy shifted into the building that Life Orrs Pharmacy currently occupies.
Bill practised for 29 years before selling the pharmacy in 1973 at the age off 52. Ken was 12 at the time.
"He got to an age where retail was no longer for him and it was probably a very good choice because as with all vocations they come with their frustrations and dad was able to make the choice there was somewhere else he was going to enjoy more."
Ken Orr's dad Bill opened the first Orrs Pharmacy in 1944. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Despite having different owners and partners, the name Orrs Pharmacy remained.
Ken, who is the youngest of five, reckoned his dad had given up on the idea one of his children would become a pharmacist after his daughter - number four - went off to become a clinical psychologist.
But Ken did. In 1986, at age 25, he opened Orrs Bream Bay Pharmacy - now known as Unichem Orrs Pharmacy - and In 1998 it merged with the Cameron St Orrs.
"When I came back to Cameron St he was my greatest supporter but also the person I got the most feedback from."
Ken wasn't the last from the family to follow, nephew Dave started working at Cameron St in 2008 and became a partner in 2015.
Dave said 75 years was a significant milestone.
"That's something that has stood the test of time and the changes that have gone through pharmacy. But I really hope we see it through to 100 because that will be my job," he said.
Orrs has now expanded to serve the wider Northland community with partnerships in Maungaturoto, Ruawai, Dargaville, Kaikohe and in Maunu and Rust Ave, Whangārei.
