From his historic estate on the banks of the James River, Harrison Tyler '49 is mere miles -- if not steps -- away from the places and events that have shaped his storied family. His father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler LL.D. 1919, was a tremendously influential president of William and Mary during the tumultuous period from the reopening in 1888 to 1919. His father -- Harrison Tyler's grandfather -- was John Tyler 1807, the 10th President of the United States. And the president's father, John Tyler 1765, was governor of Virginia from 1808 to 1811. Each of these Tyler men and more, stretching back to the earliest years of the Virginia colony, has more than a family name in common: each has found his way to the College of William and Mary and made an impact.
Harrison Tyler is no different. He came to Williamsburg after growing up in Charles City County, Va., and attending a private school in Richmond. His mother encouraged him to pursue medicine or law, but at William and Mary, Tyler became engrossed in chemistry.
"The first atomic bomb had exploded the previous year, and [chemistry professor Dr. William Guy] was talking about splitting the atom and all the things that came out of it," he says. "It was like a world lit up; I had never dreamed of anything like this. At that moment, I was going to be a chemist."
After pursuing a master's in chemistry at Virginia Tech, he began his career with Virginia-Carolina Chemical, setting up plants that manufactured sodium tripolyphosphate for, among other things, laundry detergents. His first assignment, in Charleston, S.C., put him in contact with future wife Payne, whom he began to see when they were both living in Richmond a few years later. They married in 1957 and had three children: Julia, Ruffin and William.
By 1965, Virginia-Carolina Chemical had been taken over by Mobil Oil and was asking the Tylers to move for a job in New Jersey. Frustration with the new management led Tyler to leave Mobil and strike out on his own. He was inspired by a problem with well water at an Ohio plant, which didn't behave the same way as the cleaner South Carolina creek water.
"Within three months the plant has scaled and we have problems," he says. "I go out and call people in water treatment and find out that half the salesmen who called on me didn't know any more than I did. ... That experience stuck with me."
Upon leaving Mobil, he decided it was time water treatment was handled by people who knew water treatment. Tyler took a crash course and founded his own company, which became ChemTreat, in 1967.
"I don't know whether you could say I was a good salesman, but at least I could talk to people," he says. "I could talk to engineers in other plants; we liked each other." Tyler eventually sold ChemTreat to its own employees -- by then, the company had over 600 employees.
The success of ChemTreat, thanks to Tyler's philosophy, allowed him to contribute to the College's history department, which was then named after his father Lyon, a prominent Southern historian as well as College president. While his father's analysis of the Civil War and antebellum South has fallen out of vogue with most historians of the 19th century, Tyler himself remains a staunch advocate of Virginia and its Southern heritage.
Perhaps the most striking reminder of the Tyler legacy on campus is the Tyler Family Garden, dedicated by President Timothy J. Sullivan '66 in 2004. Three pedestals bear busts of Tyler's predecessors: the governor, the U.S. president and the College president. The names of 24 descendants are engraved in the bases of the pedestals, arranged opposite a long semicircular stone bench. But it's not all solemn historical fact.
Shortly after the dedication of the sculptures, Tyler was returning from an alumni event at the University Center and visited the garden, which was occupied by two young couples enjoying the evening.
"I said, 'That's my father, that's my grandfather, and that's my great-grandfather,'" he says. "And they could not be any happier about what you all are using this for.'"
The Tyler Family Garden and the Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History are strong signals of the deep roots that reach into William and Mary's past and extend into its present. Thanks to the dedication and stewardship of Harrison Tyler, the family legacy continues.
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