Oren Dorell a hit-and-run fatality

Oren Dorell, at the BJ 1998-2000 before he left for the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer and, later, 13 years at USA TODAY, was killed Friday by a hit-and-run driver who struck Dorell’s motorcycle.

D.C.’s Metropolitan Police arrested Daryl Grant, 47, on charges of second-degree murder, driving under the influence and fleeing the scene in his Toyota Camry.

Oren met his wife, Virginia "Ginny" Knapp Dorell, at the BJ. She was a copy editor.  They married in 2003. They have two sons, Malcolm, 12, and Leo, 11.

Oren began at USA TODAY as a breaking news reporter before his globetrotting foreign affairs beat.

Born in Canada in 1964, Oren lived in Bolivia and Philadelphia, but considered his home to be Haifa, Israel, where he lived from ages 5 to 12. 

Oren’s late father, Harold Dorell, was director of civil rights in the Federal Highway Administration Southeast Region 9 during the Reagan Administration. His job was to ensure that contractors who built the nation’s highways, tunnels, transit systems and light rail lines hired workers fairly, without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sex or disability, in line with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Harold is a military veteran buried in Arlington National Cemetery.