President John Tyler, circa 1860-1865. His last surviving grandchild, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, died on Sunday.

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The last living grandson of President John Tyler — who left the White House in 1845 — has died.

Harrison Ruffin Tyler died Sunday at 96, according to Annique Dunning, executive director of Sherwood Forest, the Virginia property that members of the Tyler family have called home since the end of its patriarch’s presidency. Tyler had suffered strokes in recent years and died of natural causes, she said.

Tyler led a successful career as a chemical engineer before turning his attention — and newfound wealth — to preserving historical sites.

“His love of history and his birthplace, Charles City County, VA, led him to preserve both Sherwood Forest, President Tyler’s home, and Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War fortification nearby,” Dunning told NPR over email. “He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him.”

In interviews over the years, Tyler said he didn’t pay much attention to his lineage when he was younger.

“I grew up during World War II, and surviving the war and the shortages was what was on everybody’s mind,” he told Subaru Drive Magazine in 2002. “Being related to a president was never a thought.”

As he got older, however, it became a great source of pride — and amusement.

“When you talk about my grandfather born in the 1700s, there is a disconnect there,” he told a Richmond CBS affiliate in 2012, during a wave of media coverage. “It is somewhat incredulous because of the time frame.”

The Tyler family tree 

John Tyler was the 10th president of the U.S., and the first vice president to ascend to the presidency.

He took office in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died just a month into his term. Tyler’s four years in office were largely defined by his opposition to his own Whig Party, his controversial annexation of Texas and staunch support of states’ rights — and, later, the Confederacy.

Tyler had eight children with his first wife, Letitia, who died of a stroke in 1842. Two years later, he married Julia Gardiner, a New York socialite 30 years his junior.

While Gardiner initially turned down his advances, she “literally swooned into President Tyler’s arms after witnessing her father’s death in an explosion,” according to the National First Ladies Library & Museum. They had been cruising the Potomac River on a new naval warship when a gun exploded, killing six people, including cabinet secretaries and Gardiner’s father.

An engraved portrait of First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler. She and President Tyler had seven children together, one of whom was Harrison Ruffin Tyler’s father.

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At the end of his term, Tyler and Gardiner moved from the White House to Sherwood Forest, about 27 miles southeast of Richmond. They had a total of seven children before his death at age 71 in 1862.

Their third-youngest, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, was born in 1853 — when his dad was 63. After the death of his first wife, Lyon Gardiner Tyler went on to marry Sue Ruffin, who was 35 years his junior and had her own notable family history: She was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and Edmund Ruffin, a prominent planter, Virginia state senator and early advocate for succession.

Harrison Ruffin Tyler — their second son — was born in 1928. His dad was 75 at the time.

Tyler made his name in chemical engineering 

Tyler showed promise in mathematics from a young age. At 16, he won a scholarship to the College of William & Mary, where his dad had served as president.

Despite Tyler’s prominent family heritage, he had a modest upbringing. His son, William, told the Washington Post in 2020, because the late president’s wealth was spread thin among his numerous heirs, and most of Tyler’s father’s wealth was “tied up in a vast book collection” that he donated to William & Mary. His college tuition was mysteriously paid by Lady Astor, whom the family had never met.

Tyler graduated with a chemistry degree in 1949, then studied chemical engineering at Virginia Tech. In 1968 he co-founded ChemTreat, an industrial water treatment company whose clients eventually included Kraft Foods, Philip Morris and the Ford Motor Company. It boasted revenues of $200 million in the fiscal year before it was acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2007.

Tyler told Virginia Tech Magazine in 2007 that he and co-founder William Simmons had three goals: “sell a product that works, hire good employees, and take care of those employees.” They made the company an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 1989, and their employees gained controlling interest when they retired in 2000.

Tyler’s “accomplishments in business changed the lives of countless employees of ChemTreat,” Dunning told NPR.

Tyler’s preservation and philanthropic work 

Engraved view of Sherwood Forest, the home of President John Tyler, in Charles City County, Va., circa 1845.

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Tyler and his wife, Francis Payne Bouknight Tyler, acquired Sherwood Forest from cousins in 1975, according to Dunning. By that point it was a “shadow of its former self,” according to a database from the American Aristocracy website.

The president’s widow, Julia, fled the property during the Civil War and returned afterward to find it ransacked by Union troops and formerly enslaved people, including some the Tyler family had owned. There were 43 enslaved workers on the property as of 1860, according to Sherwood Forest.

After acquiring it in the 1970s, Tyler and his wife set about restoring the 50-acre property (about half of which is open for public tours), referring to letters and books his grandmother had used to decorate it originally. Sherwood Forest, which is now a national historic landmark, boasts the longest frame house in America, as well as a ghost named the Gray Lady.

In 1996, Tyler purchased Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War fortification a few miles from Sherwood Forest. The National Register of Historic Places says the site was “virtually untouched” for over a century until Tyler bought it. It opens to the public for a reenactment one weekend every June.

“Due to his vision, dedication, and generous support, efforts to preserve and interpret the fort continue today through Fort Pocahontas LTD, a private foundation of the Tyler family,” it added.

Tyler and his wife also donated $5 million to establish an endowment for the College of William & Mary’s history department in 2001, in memory of his father. But, citing “Lyon Gardiner Tyler’s views on the Confederacy and on slavery,” the department was renamed in honor of Tyler himself in 2021.

It says his donation underwrites research and guest lectures on a wide range of subjects, including Jewish history, imperialism, the Cold War and the histories of slavery, racism and discrimination.

“The extraordinary generosity of Harrison Ruffin Tyler — whose gift came with no limitations on the scholarly activity it would make possible — continues to bear good fruit,” the department says.

Tyler’s family ties 

Tyler acknowledged his grandfather’s complicated legacy, but also defended it. He said in a 2012 interview that Tyler is not often recognized for organizing a Peace Conference in Washington in 1861 to try to avert a civil war. When that effort failed, he was elected to the Confederate Congress but died before his term began.

“He was not a traitor to his country,” he separately told WTVR, the CBS station, that year. “John Tyler did try to promote peace wherever he could.”

He laughed off the idea of following in his family’s tradition of fathering children later in life, saying, “We’re not going that route again.”

Tyler’s wife, Frances Payne Bouknight Tyler, died in 2019. His brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., died in 2020, making him the president’s last surviving grandson.

Harrison Ruffin Tyler is survived by three children and eight great-grandchildren, according to Dunning, who says Sherwood Forest will remain in the family.

“Sherwood Forest is a private foundation of the Tyler family,” she said. “Nothing will be changing about that.”

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate will return to the UK to defend themselves against charges of rape and other offences, a lawyer representing the siblings has said.

Andrew Ford, of Holborn Adams representing Andrew and Tristan Tate, has confirmed in a statement by firm Holborn Adams that once proceedings for separate charges the brothers are facing in Romania are concluded, “The Tates will return to face UK allegations”.

Andrew Tate, 38, faces 10 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, relating to three women.

His brother Tristan Tate, 36, faces 11 charges relating to one woman – including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.

The charges were authorised in January 2024, but full details have only been released now.

Bedfordshire Police issued an international arrest warrant for the brothers over allegations, which they “unequivocally deny”, said to have occurred between 2012 and 2015.

Andrew and Tristian Tate’s legal team alleges that there is “a vast amount of misinformation” about the allegations faced by their clients, which they say could impact their clients’ right to a fair trial.

The lawyers have also accused the Crown Prosecution Service and police of refusing to “engage with us in any meaningful way”.

“UK prosecutors refuse to give even the most basic information to allow our clients to understand the allegations which they face,” Holborn Adams said in a statement.

“These are historic allegations and our clients are not even being told who the supposed victims are, this is not a typical approach and demonstrates a different approach on the basis of the profile of our clients.”

They added: “As and when the time presents itself, we will rigorously defend our clients.”

The Tate brothers are facing separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering in Romania.

They are also accused of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in a different case, which has been sent back to prosecutors.

Prosecutors have submitted a request to authorities in Romania for the brothers to be extradited following the conclusion of proceedings in Romania.

Lawyer Matt Jury, of McCue Jury & Partners, representing several alleged British victims of Andrew Tate, said: “We welcome the clarity from the Crown Prosecution Service that our authorities are working to ensure the Tates face justice here in the UK – they cannot be allowed to escape extradition.

“At the same time, we ask once more that CPS admit its mistake in failing to prosecute Tate when he lived in the UK and finally charge him for the rape and assault of the other three women, our clients, who originally filed criminal complaints against him as long ago as 2014 but were failed by the system.

“They deserve justice, too.”

The allegations were subject to a police investigation, which was closed in 2019. The women are now bringing a civil case against Andrew Tate.

Addressing the proceedings, Tate’s lawyers highlighted that the proceedings were not criminal and brought for compensation.

The lawyers said the High Court case was “set down for trial in 2027” and that Andrew Tate would “rigorously defend himself with our full support”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: CBC News commissioned this public opinion research to be conducted immediately following the federal election and leading into the second anniversary of the United Conservative Party’s provincial election win in May 2023. 

As with all polls, this one provides a snapshot in time. 

This analysis is one in a series of articles from this research. More stories will follow.

Naheed Nenshi, the Alberta NDP leader and prolific public speaker, spent 55 minutes delivering a speech to his party’s convention in early May about the state of Alberta politics and where he wants to take his movement and province.

Well, at least most of it was present- and future-focused.

He spent 11 minutes near the top of his address looking back at the Calgary flood — the defining moment of his mayoralty. A dozen years ago.

At one point in that reminiscence, he became self-aware he was dwelling on the past.

“So I know this feels like an old story,” Nenshi said. “Why is he going back to the greatest hits?”

He then tried to bridge his storytelling about Calgary’s flood-time resilience into a metaphor about the UCP government. 

“It’s a flood of economic uncertainty. It’s a flood of attacks on our public services. It’s a flood of policies that divide rather than unite. And today, my friends, we’re going to start stopping that flood.”

But it seems like the hero of 2013 Calgary isn’t stirring hearts in 2025 Alberta, according to new polling from Janet Brown Opinion Research.

Ex-mayor behind in cities

The massive enthusiasm that surrounded his big win last year as the Opposition party’s leader appears to have failed to resonate beyond his base.

He was a star recruit from outside the NDP ranks, selected to deliver victory after former premier Rachel Notley had failed in her second and third bids to return the party to that electoral Jerusalem.

However, NDP fortunes have fallen sharply in Calgary under its first Calgarian leader. They’d narrowly won the popular vote and won the most seats in the province’s largest city in 2023, but now trail the UCP there by 13 percentage points, the poll shows — nearly as far back as they are provincewide.

And in Edmonton, the city they swept (again) and won by 29 points in 2023, it’s nearly a tie.

Nenshi is running in a by-election in Notley’s former riding of Edmonton–Strathcona, and is even mingling among the city’s hockey fans in a newish team sweater. 

But he has a lot of ground to make up in his newly adoptive political home base to even bring the NDP back to its 2023 levels of success, let alone faring better than that next election. 

“Our life’s work is not to be the biggest Opposition Alberta has ever seen,” Nenshi told his party convention. “Our life’s work is to be the best government Alberta’s ever had.”

While the NDP brand often struggled, Notley in her latter years tended to enjoy higher personal support than her UCP rivals Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith.

The progressive party’s current leader holds no such edge, compared to the current premier.

In both Edmonton and Calgary, more poll respondents are likely to say they have a negative impression of Nenshi than a positive one.

Brown said he may have Smith to blame for his fortunes, as impressions of the premier have edged upward over her time in office.

“It’s always difficult to look at a leader in isolation because how well a leader is doing is always related to how well the person on the other end of the teeter-totter is doing,” the pollster told CBC News.

“So Danielle Smith probably owes something to Nenshi for how well she’s doing, and Nenshi probably has to acknowledge that Smith is one of the reasons that he’s not performing as well.”

Brown cites Smith’s “dynamic” communicating skills — say, wasn’t that Nenshi’s reputation too? — but also her ability to dominate the agenda as premier. 

“She just takes up so much of the energy, it’s hard for Nenshi to get into the debate,” Brown said.

Over his nearly one year as leader, Nenshi hasn’t been able to get onto the legislature floor for any formal debate; but with a by-election win on June 23, he’ll have that opportunity when the assembly resumes sitting in October.

But getting in four weeks of question period jousts this fall won’t likely matter much — not with so many other modern ways to make his political message heard, said Keith McLaughlin, a former NDP senior aide and strategist.

To him, Nenshi should change the content and approach of his message, rather than expect the venue to improve things for him.

“Voters want fighters, not feelers,” McLaughlin said in an interview. “They don’t want to go for a bleeding heart.”

While Nenshi’s recollections of the Calgary spirit during the flood were well received by convention-goers, McLaughlin said, the partisans were far more energized by their leader’s more spirited rhetoric about labour strife among education staff and about their rivals’ flirtation with provincial separatism.

David Climenhaga, a provincial NDP supporter and blogger, wrote after the Alberta convention that Nenshi’s been “weirdly passive” when he’s had the opportunity to take on Smith.

“There are lots of social media videos, but I don’t get the feeling Mr. Nenshi’s professorial lectures have homed in on the issues that matter the most to the working Albertans whose votes the provincial NDP requires to push it over the top,” Climenhaga wrote.

However, time and circumstances may have prevented Nenshi from capitalizing on two of the biggest fights his NDP have taken to the United Conservatives.

The opposition was girding for a big fight last fall, when Smith put forth her legislation making major policy changes on transgender youth health care and in schools in late October. But soon afterward, headlines were dominated by Donald Trump’s victory south of the border, and his subsequent threats on Canadian sovereignty.

Months later, controversy erupted over Alberta Health Services’ contracting practices and the ouster of CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos. Nenshi’s NDP swiftly branded it a scandal and demanded another ouster, that of Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.

The Trump bump (of all else off the agenda)

But other events dominated the headlines as those health-management stories broke, too. 

A newly inaugurated President Trump ramped up his tariff threats on Canada, and the rise of Liberal Leader Mark Carney and the federal election became the main story in Alberta and elsewhere, perhaps giving less spotlight to provincial politics, where Nenshi and his MLAs were busy fervently denouncing their rivals and trying to highlight the AHS saga.

Brown also said she believes the recent evaporation of federal NDP support is helping drag down the provincial party. Nenshi’s team has recently started referring to themselves as “Alberta’s New Democrats” instead of using the NDP acronym — a subtle attempt to distance themselves from their federal cousins.

That’s on top of a more formal separation of federal and provincial branches. 

At the same convention where Nenshi shared his flood reminiscences, members voted to end automatic membership in the federal NDP for all provincial card-holders.

They also showed unity behind their leader with an 89.5 per cent vote of support in his leadership review.

The party is leaning on him in these by-elections. Not only is Nenshi’s name on his own candidate lawn signs in Strathcona, but his cross-town colleague running in the vacant Edmonton-Ellerslie has a “Team Nenshi” logo in one corner that’s larger than the party’s logo in another corner.

Despite his subpar performance in polls to date, there’s far more patience than discontent among New Democrats with Nenshi, McLaughlin said. There’s also awareness that he has time to make up ground before the next Alberta election in fall 2027.

While his NDP remains united, there’s sharp division within Smith’s party on the separation question. And who knows what multiple investigations into the AHS matter will conclude?

At the end of Nenshi’s speech, he spent three more minutes on one last 2013 Calgary flood story — about one family wracked by the disaster, and the shepherd’s pie that strangers made for them. 

He spoke about the deep kindness and generosity of Albertans in the face of adversity, and then spoke of tapping into that spirit to overcome what Smith’s UCP have wrought.

It may have been a new anecdote to many of the non-Calgarians at this Alberta NDP event, but it’s one that by 2014 had already been well-worn in Nenshi’s rhetorical repertoire.

He may choose to refresh the content of his speeches as he continues in his bid to overtake the UCP and Smith.

Or, he could stick with his greatest hits, the pivotal moment of his past political career and for Calgary. 

But if the flood is still his favourite reference point come next election, he’ll be seized by something that happened 14 years ago, when voters will be concerned about the next four years.

The CBC News random survey of 1,200 Albertans was conducted using a hybrid method between May 7 to 21, 2025, by Edmonton-based Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The sample is representative of regional, age and gender factors. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For subsets, the margin of error is larger. The survey used a hybrid methodology that involved contacting survey respondents by telephone and giving them the option of completing the survey at that time, at another more convenient time, or receiving an email link and completing the survey online. Trend Research contacted people using a random list of numbers, consisting of 40 per cent landlines and 60 per cent cellphone numbers. Telephone numbers were dialed up to five times at five different times of day before another telephone number was added to the sample. The response rate among valid numbers (i.e. residential and personal) was 12.8 per cent.