Jesse Garrett Jernigan Jr.

1950 - 2022

Jesse Garrett Jernigan, Jr.
May 17, 1950 - May 9, 2022
Petaluma, California - Jesse Garrett Jernigan, Jr., known to all as Garrett, was born on May 17, 1950, to parents Jesse Garrett Jernigan, Sr. and Evelyn Smith Jernigan in Chapel Hill. He passed away unexpectedly on May 9, 2022 in Petaluma, California. He grew up in Raleigh and took full advantage of a spectacular public school education at Wiley Elementary, Daniels Junior High and Broughton High where he graduated in1968. During his years at Broughton, he was greatly influenced by teacher Edward Blakeway, who introduced Garrett to computers and programming, culminating in a state award in the Westinghouse Talent Search. Senior English teacher Phyllis Peacock described Garrett as one of her very few students that could beautifully bridge the gulf between creative writing and science.
After graduating from the California Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Physics in 1972, Garrett attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned his Ph.D in Physics in 1977. While at MIT, Garrett's innovations led to new algorithms for analyzing data from the Rotation Modulation Collimator on SAS-3, producing the most accurate positions of x-ray sources to date, including those in the cores of globular clusters. Those measurements formed the basis for his Ph. D. thesis, under the direction of MIT Professor George Clark. Garrett's work on SAS-3 also led to many other noteworthy discoveries, including several cataclysmic variables, new X-ray burst sources, x-ray quasars and pulsars. Moving to California in 1981, Jernigan continued his work in High Energy Astrophysics as a Senior Fellow and later Associate Research Physicist at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, where he worked until his retirement in 2011. In July 1994 the world watched the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet collide with Jupiter. Garrett built an infrared camera that took photographs shown around the world of the comet's impact from the Keck Telescope in Kamuela, Hawaii.
Garrett has been described as a visionary who believed that everyone should have access to what technology can do to improve their livesâ€"not simply those who can afford it. He has been a valued mentor to many students and colleagues over the years. After retiring from UC Berkeley, he began volunteering at Sonoma State University (SSU) where his wife, Lynn Cominsky, is on the faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. At SSU, he provided technical management and scientific direction for several small satellites ("CubeSats") that could be built by undergraduates. The first SSU small satellite was the successful launch of T-Logo-Qube in 2013. The microcontroller developed for SSU's CubeSat program became the initial hardware platform for SSU's hands-on ninth-grade STEM curriculum "Learning by Making", which aims to help rural high school students think, experiment, and learn how to utilize the technology that is quickly shaping the world around them.
Garrett was inspiring, stubborn, creative, and determined. He refused to ever use his knowledge and skills to work on any kind of weaponry. Shortly before his passing, Garrett was project scientist and the creative driving force on a team that won first place in NASA's "Honey I Shrunk The Payload" contest for a miniature x-ray spectrometer known as "Sun Slicer". The Sun Slicer team's work will be launched to the moon, adding to the many other pieces of his legacy that will continue on amongst the stars.
Garrett was a kind and loyal man, caring deeply not only for his beloved wife, but for his friends, students, and all his animals at the Little H-bar Ranch near Petaluma. He especially loved riding horses all over California with the Los Viajeros club, partnering with four different horses over the past 25 years: Ziggy, Beau, Blazar and Code. Garrett Jernigan is survived by his best friend and wife of 42 years, Lynn Cominsky. Also surviving are his brother Rick (Carla) Jernigan, niece Leigh (Chris) Ragone and nephew Garrett (Blair) Jernigan all of Raleigh. Garrett remained loyal to his extended family and home in North Carolina with yearly visits to Raleigh, Ahoskie and his grandparents 1930's beach cottage in Nags Head. Donations in Garrett's memory may be made to Sonoma State University, fund number (580090-QZ059-1042-QB125PI) to support the Learning by Making program.