Orville Z. Tyler III ’56

Orville Z. Tyler III ’56 died on January 6, 2014, in Mt. Pleasant, Alabama.

He was born on July 30, 1934, in Savannah, Ga., and prepared for college at Leavenworth Senior High School. A member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity, he went on to earn a master’s in business administration from Tulane University in 1964. He served to first lieutenant in the Army Chemical Corps on Bikini Atoll and Eniwetok. His service included the testing and transportation of the hydrogen bomb. He held several positions in the textile industry, including chemical manufacturing at BF Goodrich Chemical Co., the Cryovac Division of WR Grace, and Fibermesh Company. While at Indian Head Yarn and Thread, he invented Tylon™ polypropylene textile yarns. In 1989, he formed his own company, Fibermat, Inc. A lifelong inventor, he discovered how to eliminate the metallic taste of soft drinks stored in cans, resulting in a patented coating used in the manufacturing process. He perfected several now-common products, including indoor-outdoor carpeting, washable wallpaper, and exterior latex paint. Most recently, he and his stepson, Edward W. Bailey, patented a process called Terrepure, a combination of filtration and oxidation that uses ultrasonic energy to purify distillate. The patent led to the formation of a company, Terressentia, in 2007. An article about the Terrepure process of rapidly aging spirits was published in Popular Science magazine. Terressentia liquors have been entered in six international competitions, winning a total of thirty medals. He is survived by daughter Elizabeth Tyler Austin, two grandchildren, sister Jay Tyler Betette, brother Marshall Tyler, stepsons Edward W. Bailey and Ralph Bailey Jr., stepdaughter Anne B. Seymour, and three step-grandchildren. He was the husband of Gibson Bailey Tyler.

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