The final living grandson of the 10th President of the United States, John Tyler, has passed away. Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the grandson of the president who left the White House in 1845, died peacefully on Sunday at the age of 96. He was a prominent chemical engineer and historic preservationist, related to a presidency that spanned nearly two centuries.
Tyler had suffered strokes in recent years and died of natural causes, according to representatives at Sherwood Forest Plantation in Virginia, the Tyler family estate since the 19th century. His long life spanned different eras of American history, and his work encompasses science, business, and historic preservation.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler was the grandson of 10th US President John Tyler
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of 10th U.S. President John Tyler, has died at 96, 180 years after his grandfather left the White House.
He was born in 1928 when his father was 75. pic.twitter.com/ZMzT4etedy
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 28, 2025
Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928, the second son of Lyon Gardiner Tyler and Sue Ruffin. His father was born in 1853, when John Tyler was 63 years old, and he maintained the family’s academic and intellectual standard as president of the College of William & Mary. Despite his presidential lineage, Harrison had a modest childhood shaped by the Great Depression and World War II.
He displayed early talent in mathematics, earning a scholarship to William & Mary and later pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech. In 1968, he co-founded ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment company that would grow into a significant industry player before being acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2007. Although his business success brought financial security, Harrison Ruffin Tyler discovered his true passion later in life: preserving history. He purchased the family’s ancestral home, Sherwood Forest, in 1975 and spent decades restoring the estate using historical references left behind by his grandmother, Julia Gardiner Tyler.
Preserving history
In 1996, Tyler acquired nearby Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War-era fortification that had remained untouched for over 100 years, and ensured the site was preserved and accessible to the public. In 2001, he donated $5 million to endow the history department at William & Mary in the name of his late father.
Following the death of his wife in 2019 and his brother in 2020, Harrison became the last surviving grandson of John Tyler. He leaves behind three children, eight grandchildren, and a foundation that continues to preserve Sherwood Forest for future generations.