For many people in Lakeland, Jack Randolph Harrell Jr. embodied the core values of his family’s fertilizer and seed company, Harrell’s LLC:
- to serve, honor and glorify God.
- take care of people.
- and grow Harrell’s financial strength.
Harrell died on Saturday at his Lakeland home following a six-month battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 68.
“My family is saddened by the loss of my father, but we rejoice that he has gone home to Glory and is not in any more pain and suffering any longer,” Jack Harrell III said. “His body had been restored and he is at peace. My father was a great man who took care of so many people. Everyone else was always his main concern, rather than himself. We will all miss him but are so happy that he is rejoicing in Heaven.”
Jack Harrell, Jr., talks about the company’s core values.
Harrell graduated from Lakeland Senior High School, where he was a football letterman. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Georgia Southern College in 1978. He then returned to Lakeland to join the business that his grandparents, Ormond and Lucile Harrell, started in 1941. In the late 1970s, the business consisted of Harrell’s Feed Store on Lake Mirror and multiple Harrell’s Garden Centers in Lakeland and the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area.
Under Harrell’s leadership as CEO, the company “began an unprecedented era of expansion, mergers and acquisitions, growing the company into what is now the nation’s largest producer of custom-blended fertilizers and distributor of chemicals for golf courses, lawn care, greenhouses, nurseries and specialty agriculture,” his obituary stated.
Funeral service: A celebration of life service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Victory Church, 1401 Griffin Road, with the Rev. Lyle Caswell, senior pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church, presiding.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Parker Street Ministries, Bonnet Springs Park or Lakeland Regional Health.