Matt Frye/The Kearney CourierHeaded to grab lunch at Yates-Gill College Union, from left, are Mike, Andy and Danny Orr on Friday, Aug. 29. The triplets are attending William Jewell College after graduating from Park Hill High School this past spring.
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Set of identical triplets attend William Jewell College
By David Knopf
Two of the first identical triplets to attend William Jewell College look alike.
But the third — brothers Andy and Mike Orr call Dan “the runt of the litter” — wears his hair longer and dresses differently. And his long, European-inspired hairstyle, continental polo, black jeans and silver chain are only the beginning of how different he used to be.
“It’s a mullet with a Mohawk, that’s what it is,” Andy said. “And multicolored at that.”
Dan has always done his own thing. At Park Hill High School, one his phases was the all-black, pierced-body Goth look.
“He wore eye makeup twice, which was awkward for us at school,” Mike said.
The wildest Mike ever got was a wardrobe with some color.
“In middle school, I went through a Hawaiian shirt phase, which is really worse,” he said. “I wore a different one to school every day.”
The more you learn about the Jewell freshmen, the more you realize how different they are. Andy wants to follow in the footsteps of his physician parents, Robert and Michelle, and plans a pre-med major. He’s also a “gamer” who can quickly master any video game.
“Andy pretty much picks up a game and he can figure out how to play it,” Dan said.
Mike is the computer guru the others turn to. His academic field is engineering, but an obsession with a 1987 Toyota MR-2 two-seater he hopes to buy and rebuild overrides everything.
“Mike and I are the kind to buy something really cheap and fix it up,” Andy said.
But when Mike goes on and on about cars, even Andy — his best friend — tunes him out.
“When I hear about cars it’s all ‘wah, wah, wah, wah,’” Mike said.
Dan, the creative one, plans to major in music performance and study theater. Singing is his forté, but he can also play everything from guitar to accordion to bagpipes and write creatively.
Even without his brothers’ teasing, Dan admits he likes an audience.
“The first time I stood up and performed before people and got that adrenalin rush, I was hooked,” he said.
Mike, the first triplet Michelle Orr delivered, weighed almost six pounds. Andy was in the same ballpark. But Dan weighed just 2 pounds. He’s been different ever since.
The boys have an older brother and sister, and they say their mother wanted another girl.
“She got us all for the same price as one girl,” Dan said.
The boys will live on separate floors at Jewell. Andy’s rooming with a high school friend, but the others have out-of-state roommates.
Mike and Andy see advantages to the college’s engineering and pre-med programs, and Dan said he’s heard good things about the music program. But leave it to him to see something different.
“I’m really looking forward to making new friends,” he said. “But I’ll be with my brothers and be 15 minutes from home with a student body about the size of our high school.”
It’s the way it’s always been.
“We all three are identical, but Dan just chooses to be different,” Andy said. “He didn’t want to be one of us.”
Not then, not now.
Correspondent David Knopf can be reached at dknopf@kc.rr.com.
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But the third — brothers Andy and Mike Orr call Dan “the runt of the litter” — wears his hair longer and dresses differently. And his long, European-inspired hairstyle, continental polo, black jeans and silver chain are only the beginning of how different he used to be.
“It’s a mullet with a Mohawk, that’s what it is,” Andy said. “And multicolored at that.”
Dan has always done his own thing. At Park Hill High School, one his phases was the all-black, pierced-body Goth look.
“He wore eye makeup twice, which was awkward for us at school,” Mike said.
The wildest Mike ever got was a wardrobe with some color.
“In middle school, I went through a Hawaiian shirt phase, which is really worse,” he said. “I wore a different one to school every day.”
The more you learn about the Jewell freshmen, the more you realize how different they are. Andy wants to follow in the footsteps of his physician parents, Robert and Michelle, and plans a pre-med major. He’s also a “gamer” who can quickly master any video game.
“Andy pretty much picks up a game and he can figure out how to play it,” Dan said.
Mike is the computer guru the others turn to. His academic field is engineering, but an obsession with a 1987 Toyota MR-2 two-seater he hopes to buy and rebuild overrides everything.
“Mike and I are the kind to buy something really cheap and fix it up,” Andy said.
But when Mike goes on and on about cars, even Andy — his best friend — tunes him out.
“When I hear about cars it’s all ‘wah, wah, wah, wah,’” Mike said.
Dan, the creative one, plans to major in music performance and study theater. Singing is his forté, but he can also play everything from guitar to accordion to bagpipes and write creatively.
Even without his brothers’ teasing, Dan admits he likes an audience.
“The first time I stood up and performed before people and got that adrenalin rush, I was hooked,” he said.
Mike, the first triplet Michelle Orr delivered, weighed almost six pounds. Andy was in the same ballpark. But Dan weighed just 2 pounds. He’s been different ever since.
The boys have an older brother and sister, and they say their mother wanted another girl.
“She got us all for the same price as one girl,” Dan said.
The boys will live on separate floors at Jewell. Andy’s rooming with a high school friend, but the others have out-of-state roommates.
Mike and Andy see advantages to the college’s engineering and pre-med programs, and Dan said he’s heard good things about the music program. But leave it to him to see something different.
“I’m really looking forward to making new friends,” he said. “But I’ll be with my brothers and be 15 minutes from home with a student body about the size of our high school.”
It’s the way it’s always been.
“We all three are identical, but Dan just chooses to be different,” Andy said. “He didn’t want to be one of us.”
Not then, not now.
Correspondent David Knopf can be reached at dknopf@kc.rr.com.