Last Living Grandson Of America’s 10th President, John Tyler, Dies At 96

Harrison Ruffin Tyler — the grandson of President John Tyler, who served in the White House from 1841 to 1845 — died earlier this week, his family said on Wednesday. He was 96.

Tyler, born in 1928, was so close in his family tree to President Tyler, who was born in 1790, due to two generations of second marriages to much younger wives, CBS News reported. Tyler’s father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, had two sons with his second wife, Sue Ruffin Tyler, when he was in his 70s. Similarly, Lyon Gardiner Tyler’s father, President John Tyler, had multiple children with his much younger second wife when he was in his 50s and 60s. President Tyler fathered 15 children, with Lyon being the 13th child born to him.

Tyler grew up in poverty during the Great Depression and World War II. His father died when Tyler was just 7 years old, according to The Washington Post. Tyler was also related to Pocahontas and President William Henry Harrison, whom his grandfather replaced as president after Harrison died just one month after his inauguration in 1841.

The last living grandson of President John Tyler has died.

Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 and died in 2025.

His grandfather, the 10th President of the United States, was born in 1790 and died in 1862. pic.twitter.com/MIBD1u71EM

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 28, 2025

John Tyler faced unprecedented challenges, being the first vice president to succeed a president who died while in office. Near the end of his life, John Tyler, a Virginia Democrat, sided with the Confederacy and served as a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. He died in 1862, shortly after the start of the Civil War.

The grandson of the 10th president became fascinated with history, and to preserve some of his family’s legacy, he purchased President Tyler’s Sherwood Forest plantation in 1975 and Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War fortification, in 1996. Both historical sites are in Virginia, where the Tyler family lived for generations. Harrison Tyler and his wife, Frances Payne Bouknight Tyler, spent $250,000 to restore the Sherwood Forest house to its original state and open it to the public. Thanks to Tyler’s preservation, people can tour the plantation home in Charles City, Virginia.

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“He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,” said Annique Dunning, executive director of Sherwood Forest.

Much of Tyler’s efforts to preserve history were made possible by his successful and lucrative career. He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1949 with a degree in chemistry. In 1968, he co-founded ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment company, which was sold to the Danahar Corporation in 2007 for $435 million, according to the Post.

Tyler suffered mini strokes in 2012, which landed him in a nursing home in Virginia, where he lived the final years of his life. His wife died in 2019, and his last remaining sibling, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., died in 2020. Tyler and his wife, who married in 1957, had three children and eight grandchildren.