Jack Brett Jarriel

Jack Brett Jarriel, 66, of Aiken, died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Sunday, July 26, 2026.

He was an award-winning industrial designer and founder and principal of The Design Source, an industrial design firm that served both domestic and international clients.

Mr. Jarriel was born on December 28, 1959, in Athens, Georgia, the son of Anne Jarriel and Jack L. Jarriel. He grew up in Aiken, where he attended public schools. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in industrial design, then began his career at Jan Lorenc Design, an industrial design consulting firm in Atlanta that specialized in architectural signage and graphics. While at Jan Lorenc Design, his team was recognized by Print Casebooks as “Best in Environmental Graphics" for a landmark and signage system.

In 1985, Mr. Jarriel joined Diversified Products' eighty-plus member research and development team in Opelika, Alabama. At the time, DP was the world's largest manufacturer of consumer fitness equipment. Over the next nine years Mr. Jarriel designed weight benches, treadmills, elliptical trainers, exercise bikes, ski machines, as well as “The Shotbuster,” a scaled down basketball goal for play with a nerf ball. ‘’The Shotbuster” received a United States patent.

In 1994 Mr. Jarriel returned to Aiken and founded The Design Source, his own industrial design consulting firm, where his designs resulted in at least six more United States patents.

Throughout his life, Mr. Jarriel was a devout Christian and an active member of St. John’s Methodist Church in Aiken. He served as a Christ Central of Aiken volunteer and mentor.

He had a surprisingly disarming sense of humor. Before becoming an industrial designer, he had considered becoming a cartoonist and beginning in high school he produced a comic book series entitled “Magnum Load”, an absurd satire about a high school principal with the qualities of a Clint Eastwood film detective. Another series depicted a character who wandered through life permanently impaled with an umbrella and affectionately called by Mr. Jarriel “The Wretch.”

In high school Mr. Jarriel was a scholar-athlete, earning letters in football and baseball and receiving a National Merit scholarship. He was the star quarterback who fell in love with his high school homecoming queen and married her after college. They were married for 44 years until his death.

When his daughters became involved with sports, he became a city league girls’ softball coach.

He had various personal interests. He loved rock and blues music, and he played electric and acoustic guitar, occasionally in accompaniment of his daughter’s violin recitals. He was also a woodworking craftsman. Among his completed projects were a greenhouse, a horse shed, a barn, a European style dog carts for his wife’s show dogs. He also loved Detroit muscle cars.

Though he often joked about his wife’s devotion to her dogs, he cared for them deeply. Despite the chronic heart condition from which he died, he could be seen walking the dogs through Hitchcock Woods almost every day.

He is survived by his wife, Melissa Henshaw Jarriel; daughters, Dr. Katherine “Katie” Melissa (Jon Hunter) Jarriel, Durham, North Carolina, Elizabeth “Beth” Anne (Michael Walker) Jarriel, Seattle, Washington; his mother, Anne Jarriel of Aiken; a sister, Joy (Phil) Luton, Aiken; a brother, Mark (Marilyn) Jarriel, Anderson, South Carolina; and numerous nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews.

A service will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, August 2, at Shellhouse Funeral Home, Hayne Avenue, with the Rev. Butch Blackwell officiating. A private interment will follow.

Memorials may be made to St. John’s Methodist Church or Christ Central of Aiken.

SHELLHOUSE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 924 HAYNE AVE., AIKEN, SC