The final living grandson of the nation’s 10th president has died.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler was 96 years old.
His death was confirmed by Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation. The foundation is in charge of the former president’s estate in Charles City, Virginia, The Washington Post reported.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler died at a Richmond retirement community where he lived on May 25. No cause of death was provided.
He had several small strokes starting in 2012 and was eventually diagnosed with dementia, The New York Times reported.
The foundation released a statement that said Harrison Ruffin Tyler was motivated by “his love of history and his birthplace.” He worked on restoring and maintaining the property as well as preserving Fort Pocahontas, which was a Union supply depot used in the Civil War. It was built by Black soldiers who were fighting against the Confederacy.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler spoke of his grandfather to CBS News in 2012, saying, "My grandfather was born in 1790. My father was born in 1853. And I was born in 1928," to explain the ages of the men of his family — President John Tyler was 63 when his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler, the 13th of 15th children, was born and who was 75 when his son, Harrison was born.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler‘s father, Lyon, died when Harrison was only 6 years old. The family he left behind struggled during the great depression with Harrison getting up early to chop wood to heat the home and wearing clothing made from burlap sacks.
A family friend wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for help for the Tyler family.
It was said that eventually Nancy Astor drove up to the family’s property, handed a $5,000 check to them through the car window and drove off, the Post reported.
Eventually, Harrison Ruffin Tyler attended the College of William & Mary, the same school where his father was president for almost 30 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1949 but said there were no jobs available in his field of study. He continued his education, getting a chemical engineering studies degree two years later, and got a job at Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corp. as a project manager specializing in sodium phosphate.
He worked in the plant that supplied detergents for Tide and Cheer, and eventually worked at another plant for the company in Cincinnati. When it was sold to Mobil Oil, he left the company and founded his own, called ChemTreat, in his home state of Virginia. He sold the company in 2007 for $435 million, the Post reported.
Harrison Tyler bought his family’s home from another relative in 1975, slowing restoring it to its former status, opening it to the public. Nearly two decades later, he bought Fort Pocahontas, restoring it after it was abandoned in 1865.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler leaves behind his two sons, a daughter and eight grandchildren. His wife passed in 2019 and his only remaining sibling died in 2020, the Post reported.
Fox News reported that the birth of John Tyler and the death his grandson, Harrison Tyler, were separated by only 235 years.
John Tyler ascended to the presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison after 31 days in office.
The 10th president served only one term that ended in March 1845. He dropped out of the election to back the eventual winner, James Polk. John Tyler died in 1862, a year after Virginia left the Union during the Civil War, according to The Washington Post. The former president, who was a slave owner, had been elected to the Confederate legislature, but didn’t serve, dying before being able to take office, The New York Times reported.
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