The law, to which Charles B. Jarrett Jr. was dedicated for more than six decades, led him to his greatest partnership — his nearly 61-year marriage.
One day at the University of Pittsburgh Law School library, a fellow student asked Mr. Jarrett how to spell a legal term. He proposed to her three weeks later. He and Emily Jarrett were married Sept. 18, 1954, and were inseparable.
“You never thought of Emily or Charlie,” his daughter Marguerite Jarrett McClintic said. “It was Emily and Charlie.”
Mr. Jarrett, an accomplished corporate lawyer, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Nicknamed “Indy” for his Fourth of July birth, Mr. Jarrett came from a family of Pittsburgh lawyers — his grandfather began practicing in the city in 1896 –– and grew up in Squirrel Hill, attending Peabody High School.
Mr. Jarrett began his career in 1956 with Gulf Oil Corp., which transferred him to New Orleans from 1960 to 1968. Returning to Pittsburgh, he progressed to Mellon Bank in 1972, where he became senior vice president and counsel in 1978.
In 1980, Mr. Jarrett went into private practice, practicing corporate law into his 80s.
Throughout his career, more than just his work ethic was noticed. When his daughter Judy Exton of Pleasantville, N.Y., had her first child, she received a note and a check. The sender, an elevator operator in the Mellon Bank building, wrote that they had never met, but that her father had been so kind that he wanted Mr. Jarrett’s first grandchild to receive something from him.
He never stopped giving legal advice. “Daddy would just have them come to the porch and talk,” said Ms. McClintic, of Ligonier.
The home in Shadyside from which Mr. Jarrett dispensed advice was frequently filled with visitors to the bank and friends from London, Brazil and Ireland. Ms. McClintic recalls the “joyful noise” that came from dinner parties her parents held.
“No matter where they came from, what language they spoke, they would end up in our music room,” she said.
Mr. Jarrett’s passion for music stemmed from his appearance in Stephen Sondheim’s satire, “Phinney's Rainbow,” at Williams College, from which they both graduated. Mr. Jarrett would sing and whistle every day throughout his life.
F. Brooks Robinson of Squirrel Hill, a friend of the family, highlighted Mr. Jarrett’s patriotism as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1944-46) and the Korean War (1950-52).
Mr. Jarrett was also a patriotic citizen of Steelers Nation.
Mr. Robinson said his friend was forthright. “If he didn’t like the position I took in support of something, including an outcome of a football game, he’d tell you that,” he said.
Mr. Robinson particularly admired this trait during a 2008 split in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, of which Mr. Jarrett had served as chancellor for many decades.
“What was remarkable about Charlie in that situation was that he worked as long and as hard as he could to keep everybody together and in the conversation,” the Rev. Leslie Reimer of Calvary Episcopal Church said.
Mr. Jarrett also served on the vestry at Calvary and at Trinity Episcopal, when he lived in New Orleans.
In addition to his wife and daughters Marguerite and Judy, Mr. Jarrett is survived by his daughter Lydia Ball of Pleasantville, N.Y., and seven grandchildren.
Friends will be received from 3 to 5 p.m. today at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave. A funeral will be held at the church at 11 a.m Tuesday.
Elizabeth Miles: emiles@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724.
First Published: June 8, 2015, 4:00 a.m.