Obituary of Bryan Daniel Somerville

Bryan Daniel Somerville’s soul winged its way to heaven on June 25, 2021 to the arms of his Lord and Savior following a short illness.

He was born April 21, 1966 in Des Moines, Iowa. His family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska when he was a toddler and at 2 ½, his father was killed in an automobile accident. A month later, he became a big brother to a sister. In 1973, his Mom married David Somerville and the family moved to Ohio. During that time he and his sister were adopted by David and we all became Somerville’s.

He graduated from Irmo High School in 1984 and shortly after that began his career at Colite International. He was hired by Marty and Peter Brown’s father and when they closed the shop in West Columbia, the company was then taken over by Marty and Pete and they moved it to Technology Circle in Columbia. The two owners and Bryan were close in age and they became his family. He worked his way up from cutting the signs to designing them and then to being the IT Manager. He also set up lunches for meetings and ordered lunches from different vendors. I think he was pretty good because he told me if he ever left Colite, he could go into the catering business. His whole life was his work and his dogs, Shelby and Sam.

He loved his Iowa heritage and visiting family while growing up. The miles made it difficult to see family as often as he would have liked, but he always felt the connection.

He was a collector. He loved action figures, knives, and weapons.  Growing up it was dinosaurs and he was always telling me about how much they would be worth now if they were still in the box. That didn’t happen; he played with each and every one. He did spend some time buying and selling different toys as a hobby.

Anyone that knew Bryan knew he had an Irish temper, but those that really knew him also knew he had a big heart. I like to think he got some of his humor from his Mother. It was nothing for him to cry over some movie and if he would see someone that was being cruel to an animal, he couldn’t stand it.

He leaves behind his parents, David and Barb Somerville; a sister, Christine Friedrich (Eric); a niece, Heather Clancy (Thomas); a great niece, Mckayla Clancy;  three aunts, Mary King, Sherry Gray, and Sandy Williams; so many cousins -  1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th.

Services will be held Friday, July 2, 2021 at 2:00 pm with visitation from 1:00 to 1:45 pm. Location: Thompson Funeral Home, 4720 Augusta Road, Lexington, SC  29073.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Colite International, 5 Technology Circle, Columbia, SC 29203 in memory of Bryan.  For those attending the funeral, no suits, ties, dresses, please.  Please make this a casual event.  He was not that kind of a guy.