SCMA’s 2026 Physician of the Year, Dr. Rick Orr
For more than 35 years, Dr. Rick Orr has cared for patients during some of the most challenging moments of their lives. As a surgical oncologist, he has focused for the majority of his career on breast cancer, endocrine surgery, and skin cancers. He is well-respected for his thoughtful patient care and his commitment to continuous learning.
This year, the South Carolina Medical Association recognized those qualities by naming Dr. Orr its 2026 Physician of the Year.
The award is a testament that the impacts Dr. Orr has made have reached well beyond the operating room. In addition to caring for thousands of patients, Dr. Orr has spent decades teaching medical students and residents, leading multidisciplinary cancer programs, serving in organized medicine, and mentoring younger physicians. Even so, he is quick to shift the focus away from himself.
“There are hundreds of equally qualified physicians,” Dr. Orr said. “I’ve simply been fortunate to know people across many specialties, work with them and serve alongside them through organized medicine.”
Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, medicine was not part of the family business. Dr. Orr was the first person in his extended family to attend college. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he had initially planned to become a lawyer, but discovered a passion for science and medical research and quickly pivoted.
“I was the last person admitted to my medical school class from the wait list, three weeks before class started,” he said. During medical school at the University of South Florida, he developed an interest in surgery. After residency, he completed a fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia, where he specialized in surgical oncology, which subsequently shaped his future career.
“I get it, honestly,” he said with a smile. “My dad was a mechanic, and now that’s basically what I do, but for people.”
Over the years, he gained experience in virtually every aspect of surgical oncology before narrowing his focus to breast cancer, melanoma, skin cancers, and endocrine surgery.
Today, at age 74, he continues a more limited practice, specializing primarily in cutaneous oncology and thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He still pushes himself to continue learning.
For example, when a recent new Certificate of Special Competence in Adult Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery became available, Dr. Orr joined the first group of physicians to earn the credential and was required to take a formal examination alongside surgeons who are decades younger.
“There I was, a 72-year-old sitting in a testing center with a bunch of 20-year-olds,” he recalled with a laugh. “The certification was worth it, though.”
His work is shaped by a discipline that has no finish line. His eagerness to continually sharpen his skills reflects the philosophy that has guided his entire career.
“The hardest part about being a surgeon is that no matter how good you are, you aren’t good enough. ‘Good enough’ is perfect, and you can’t be perfect,” he said. “I’m actually better at what I do now than I was five or ten years ago. I constantly update my skills for my patients because this is very serious business; people are entrusting their lives to our care.”
Beyond the operating room, Dr. Orr lives in Spartanburg, where he mentors future physicians and serves as an AHEC professor with the Medical University of South Carolina.
His professional leadership includes his previous service as program director of the Spartanburg Regional general surgery residency and chair of surgery at VCOM. Currently, he is chair of the Cutaneous Oncology and Sarcoma Group at the Gibbs Cancer Center and Research Institute, and a founding member of its Breast Oncology Group.
He has continued to foster his interest in clinical research, with over 40 peer-reviewed publications and over 100 national or regional presentations of his work. His commitment extends beyond clinical practice into organized medicine, and he believes that physicians must work together to advocate for both their profession and their patients, including joining professional organizations that advocate for physicians.
“I got involved because physicians need to have a stronger voice in their future,” he said. “In the past, physicians knew each other much better. Organized medicine helps keep the profession moving in the right direction.”
Outside of medicine, Dr. Orr enjoys spending time with his wife, Lib, a retired speech-language pathologist and former president of the South Carolina Medical Association Alliance (SCMAA). Together they share four children and eight grandchildren. An avid walker following hip and knee replacements, he is also rediscovering his love of painting and recently challenged himself to learn French — another example of his belief that education should never stop.
Retirement, however, is not yet on the horizon.
“I’m still having a good time,” he said.
When that day eventually comes, it won’t be the operating room he misses most.
“I’ll miss the patients,” he said. “And I’ll miss the residents and everyone I have worked with.”
For a physician whose career has been defined by service, mentorship and pursuit of excellence, those words perhaps best explain why Dr. Rick Orr has been named the South Carolina Medical Association’s Physician of the Year.
