Lorry Lokey was born on March 27, 1927, in Portland, Oregon, and raised in the Northeast Portland neighborhood of Alameda during the Depression.^[2] His Jewish family^[3][4] practiced charity, setting the example for Lokey.^[2] He attended Alameda Elementary School in Portland,^[1][5][6] then graduated from Grant High School before being drafted^[7] into the United States Army, then deployed to Japan during the final months of World War II.^[7][8] While in the service he worked on the Pacific Stars & Stripes as an editor after the war ended.^[8]

Lokey resumed college in 1947, having been drafted into the army in 1944, following his freshman year,^[7] graduating from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.^[9] At Stanford, he worked on The Stanford Daily, becoming editor of the school newspaper in 1949.^[7] Upon graduation Lokey began working for United Press, now United Press International (UPI), and then at newspapers and in the public relations field.^[9] One newspaper he worked for was The Daily News in Longview, Washington.^[8]

Inspired by the sight of a teletype machine transferring financial news during a conference in Los Angeles,^[10] Lokey started Business Wire, a news release service, in 1961.^[6] Founded in San Francisco, California, the company started with seven clients on the first day of business.^[11] The company expanded and became an international wire service with 30 offices around the world.^[6] By 2003, the company had grown to 450 employees with annual revenue of $110 million.^[11] In 2006, Lokey sold Business Wire for approximately $600 million to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's corporation.^[6]

Lokey began donating large sums of money to charities in 1990. By 2007, he had donated more than $400 million, of which 98 percent was given to secondary and post-secondary education.^[6] Some schools include the University of Oregon, Mills College, Stanford University, the Technion,^[12] Santa Clara University, Bellarmine College Preparatory, and Portland State University.^{[1][9][13][14]} These efforts led to his listing as one of the ten highest donors in the United States by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2006.^[6] He was also an early signer of The Giving Pledge.^[15] During his lifetime, Lokey donated over 90% of his fortune,^[2] exceeding US$700 million.^[16] He was the University of Oregon's 2017-2018 honorary degree recipient.^[17]

In 2018, he donated $10 million to the University of Haifa for the construction of a new building in downtown Haifa, Israel.^[18]

As of June 2014, Lokey had also donated a total of $139.9 million to the University of Oregon in Eugene.^[19] This includes a $74.5 million donation in 2007 that was the second most ever given to the school, and the largest donation designated for academics.^[6] The 2007 donation went towards the creation of the Lorry I. Lokey Science Advancement and Graduate Education Initiative.^[6]

In October 2008, the Stanford School of Medicine announced that Lokey would donate $75 million for a research facility.^[20] The facility is named the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building.^[20] He also donated money to establish a new chemistry building at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.^[21]

Lokey had three daughters. He died in Atherton, California, on October 1, 2022, at age 95.^[22][10]