Grandson of 10th US president, W&M alum, dies at 95
Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., educator, lawyer, author and grandson of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, died Sept. 26 in Franklin, Tennessee, where he had a family farm. He was 95.
Born in Richmond on Jan. 3, 1925, Tyler died 175 years after his grandfather left the White House. Elected vice president on the Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison, Tyler assumed the presidency upon the death of Harrison, one month after they took office in 1841.
Tyler spent most of his youth in Charles City County. He was the son of Lyon G. Tyler Sr., the 17th president of the College of William & Mary (1888-1919) for whom the college’s department of history is named.
Among his survivors is a brother, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, another presidential grandson, William & Mary class of 1949, who lives in Richmond and Sherwood Forest, the Tyler’s family home in Charles City. Other survivors include his daughter, Susan Selina Pope Tyler of Franklin, Tennessee; his niece, Julia Gardiner Tyler Samaniego of Rancho Santa Fe, California; and nephews, Harrison Ruffin Tyler Jr. (Cathy) of Alexandria and William Bouknight Tyler (Key) of Richmond.
President Tyler married a second time in 1843 and was 63 years old when Lyon Tyler Sr. was born in 1853. Lyon Tyler Sr. married a second time in 1924 and he was 71 years old when Lyon Jr. was born in 1925.
“Dad was a most loving and generous person,” said Susan Selina Tyler, his daughter, in an interview with The Virginia Gazette on Monday. “Many people said he had changed their life with his advice. He was very proud to be related to President Tyler, who he said was all about integrity.”
Tyler entered William & Mary in September 1941 at age 16. World War II intervened and he served as a naval officer in the Pacific. He continued as a reserve officer after the work, working in naval intelligence and rising to the rank of commander.
He returned to William & Mary after the war and graduated in 1947 and received a law degree in 1949 from the University of Virginia. He practiced law in Richmond and Charles City, where he was elected commonwealth’s attorney.
In 1960, Tyler became associate director of the Virginia Civil War Centennial Commission. His family said he worked to help heal the country during the 100th anniversary programs, which led him to study history at Duke University, where he earned a master’s degree in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1967.
He began an academic career in 1967 teaching history at Virginia Military Institution and later at the University of Richmond. From 1973-1990 he was professor of history at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. While at The Citadel he established a Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship for cadets.
In an interview with the Charleston (South Carolina) Post & Courier after his Citadel retirement, the paper wrote Tyler “recalled an anecdote a granddaughter of Robert E. Lee told him. She said being a descendant of Lee wasn’t a privilege, it was a responsibility. Tyler said in his instance, since his grandfather was such an honest man, he felt it was his responsibility to carry on that good name.”
A funeral service was held Saturday at Westover Episcopal Church in Charles City and a memorial service will be held in Franklin Oct. 13 at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church.