Overview

• Harrison Ruffin Tyler died on May 25, 2025, at age 96 in a Virginia nursing home, ending the final living tie to an 18th-century presidential administration.
• Born Nov. 9, 1928, to 75-year-old Lyon Gardiner Tyler, he represented two generations of late fatherhood in the Tyler family line.
• In 1968, he co-founded ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment company whose clients included Kraft and Philip Morris.
• He purchased Sherwood Forest Plantation in 1975 for restoration and opened the former presidential estate to the public, then funded preservation of Fort Pocahontas in 1996.
• In 2001, Tyler donated thousands of historical documents and $5 million to William & Mary’s history department, which was renamed in his honor in 2021.