Harrison Ruffin Tyler

Did You Know?

• The period from President John Tyler's birth in 1790 to the death of his last grandchild, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, in 2025 spanned 235 years.
• Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, funded Tyler's College of William & Mary education with a $5,000 check, likely due to his father's friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Tyler co-founded ChemTreat, Inc. in 1963 after his employer was acquired by Mobil, and led an employee stock ownership program at the company in 2000.

Early life and education

Tyler was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Susan Ruffin and Lyon Gardiner Tyler. His paternal grandparents were President John Tyler and First Lady Julia Gardiner. Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of Edmund Ruffin. His father died when Tyler was six, and he was homeschooled by his mother before attending Charles City County public schools and later St. Christopher's School. Nancy Astor funded his education at the College of William & Mary with a $5,000 check. He earned a chemistry degree in 1949 and a chemical engineering degree from Virginia Tech in 1951.

Career

He received a patent for water treatment related to shiny aluminum. The firm, headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia, addressed industrial water cooling problems and served hospitals and the paper and pulp sector. Tyler led an employee stock ownership program in 2000, and Danaher Corporation acquired ChemTreat in 2007.

Personal life

Tyler married Frances Payne Bouknight in July 1957 in Johnston, South Carolina. They lived in Richmond until her death in 2019 and had three children. In 1975, the Tylers purchased Sherwood Forest Plantation from relatives and oversaw its restoration. They bought Fort Pocahontas in 1996 and funded its restoration. From 1997, Tyler sponsored annual American Civil War reenactments at Wilson's Wharf and collaborated with the William & Mary Center for Archaeological Research on Fort Pocahontas. In 2001, he donated $5 million and 22,000 books and documents to the history department, which was renamed the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History in 2021. He suffered mini-strokes in 2012, was diagnosed with dementia, and died at his Richmond home in 2025 at age 96.