He was in the United States Army as an ROTC cadet from 1959 to 1963.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Davidson College in 1963 and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1968.
He was in the United States Army Signal Corps as a Lieutenant from 1963 to 1965.
He was an Army Reserves Captain from 1965 to 1969, and was in private practice in Gastonia, North Carolina from 1968 to 1988.
[1] On July 31, 1987, Voorhees was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina vacated by Judge David B. Sentelle.