More detail on this person: ORGAIN, Albert M.
IV, of Manakin-Sabot, Va., died Friday morning,
June 27, 2014. He is survived by his wife,
Jacquelyn Norman Orgain; his son, Albert
Marcellus Orgain V and his wife, Elizabeth Saxman
Orgain; his son, Frazer Macon Orgain and his wife,
Corbin Adamson Orgain; his grandsons, Peter
Bland Orgain, John Stuart Orgain, Gatewood
Harrison Orgain; and his granddaughter, Ann
Darnley Orgain. A member of the Sands, Anderson,
Marks and Miller law firm for 43 years, he served
as the leader of Coverage and Casualty Litigation
Group for over twenty of those years. As a
specialist in aviation litigation, he earned many
honors over the course of his career to include
selection to the "Best Lawyers in America" list
for the last six years and "Virginia Super
Lawyers" for the last seven years. He served as
the Chairman of the Virginia Aviation Historical
Society and was inducted into the Virginia
Aviation Hall of Fame in 2010 for his enthusiastic
and persistent work in promoting aviation in
Virginia. In 2011, Mr. Orgain was named a Virginia
Lawyers Weekly Leader in the Law in recognition of
his aviation law practice and support of aviation
history in the Commonwealth. In 2013, he was
named a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation.
Born in Columbia, S.C., but raised in Richmond,
Mr. Orgain left home to spend his high school
years at Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal,
Va., where he graduated in 1961 and would later
serve on the Board of Trustees. After graduating
from Virginia Military Institute in 1965, Mr.
Orgain served three years in the United States
Army as an armor officer, helicopter gunship pilot
and instrument flight instructor. During the
Vietnam War, he was twice awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart
and received six Air Medals. Upon graduating from
Washington and Lee Law School in 1971, Mr.
Orgain clerked for the Honorable Judge John A.
McKenzie in Norfolk, Va. for two years before
being hired as an associate at Sands, Anderson. A
memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on
Wednesday, July 2, at St. Stephen's Episcopal
Church, 6000 Grove Avenue. In lieu of flowers,
contributions may be made to the Albert M. Orgain
IV Scholarship Fund at the Virginia Military
Institute or to a charity of one's own choosing.
Bennett Funeral Home- Central This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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03/10/2024
Copyright © 1998 - 2024 Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association
Albert Marcellus Orgain IV was 8 years old when he
decided to become a pilot.
After graduating from Virginia Military Institute
in 1965, he was commissioned a second lieutenant
in the Army and sent to South Vietnam.
Between February and May 1967, he flew 99
combat missions with the 9th Infantry Division.
The division piloted UH-1C Huey helicopter
gunships near the Mekong River Delta.
Mr. Orgain earned two Distinguished Flying
Crosses, two Purple Hearts and six Air Medals and
went on to become a lawyer who specialized in
aviation litigation. He will be honored at a
memorial service at 1 p.m. today at St. Stephen's
Episcopal Church, 6000 Grove Ave.
The Manakin resident and Columbia, S.C., native
was a longtime shareholder with the Richmond law
firm of Sands, Anderson, Marks & Miller. He died
Friday morning at age 71 as the result of injuries
suffered in an airplane crash.
Family members said he was flying his Cessna 182
on a business trip to Rocky Mount, N.C., when he
reported an engine problem and crash-landed about
five miles west of the Halifax County Airport.
He earned his first Distinguished Flying Cross for
his efforts in rescuing an infantry unit pinned
down by Viet Cong fire in a rice paddy near Tan An
on March 25, 1967.
When the unit marked its position by turning on a
flashlight, the Viet Cong opened fire on the
helicopter Mr. Orgain was piloting, he recalled in
a 1992 Richmond Times-Dispatch interview. By the
light of flares, he attacked VC positions until he
spent his rockets and machine gun ammunition,
and the enemy gave up.
His second DFC came during a mission over Nui
Dat. While flying support for ground units, his
gunship hit a tree-rigged booby trap, detonating a
cannon that "went off like a bomb," he said in the
interview.
Shrapnel blasted through the gunship, hitting a
rocket as it was being fired, tearing a hole in
the bottom of the helicopter and ripping off half
a rotor blade.
On May 18, 1967, he took a bullet in his left leg.
The wound developed an infection that refused to
heal, and the Army sent him to the states to
recuperate. He spent the rest of his active
service teaching instrument flying and was
discharged as a captain in 1968.
In 1982, he was commissioned a captain in the
Virginia Army National Guard and served 14 months
with the 28th Aviation Battalion.
Mr. Orgain, who grew up in Richmond, graduated
from Washington and Lee University School of Law
in 1971. After a year in Norfolk as a law clerk,
he returned to Richmond and joined Sands,
Anderson, Marks & Miller, where he became a
partner in 1977.
He led the firm's Coverage and Casualty Litigation
Group for more than 20 years.
Always well-prepared, "He filled the (court)room.
He controlled the court and was very courageous,"
Sands shareholder Douglas P. Rucker Jr.
remembered.
Douglas A. Weingardner, another Sands
shareholder, said Mr. Orgain taught him to "get
out of the office" and be thorough in his work. He
recalled driving through the Nevada desert for
three hours and hiking for two more with him "and
then we really found out what happened" at the
site of a plane crash.
A much-honored specialist in aviation litigation
who created his own specialty at his firm, he was
selected as one of the "Best Lawyers in America"
for the last six years and "Virginia Super
Lawyers" for the last seven.
He was a former chairman of the Virginia Aviation
Historical Society, which inducted him into the
Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2010 for his
enthusiastic and persistent work in promoting
aviation in the state.
A man who ran on full throttle or at full stop,
"he had a very large personality that could fill a
room and make everyone in the room feel
comfortable in his presence," said a son, Albert
Marcellus "Marc" Orgain V of Newport, R.I.
Mr. Orgain's daughter-in-law, Corbin Orgain,
recalled that he would say, "C'mon, babies!" and
her young children would run to him, and he would
sweep them into his arms and swing them around.
His children remembered him chronicling their
lives in nonstop photos, scooting around his
neighborhood in his Christmas light-emblazoned
go-kart, carrying on the family tradition of
saying "Love one another" as he parted company,
firing blanks from a 15-inch cannon when the VMI
team or his children's sports teams scored a
point, and dancing rings around the 20-something
set with his wife.
Survivors, besides his son, include his wife,
Jacquelyn Norman Orgain; another son, Frazer
Macon Orgain of Richmond; and four grandchildren.