Bennet Tyler

The Rev. Bennet Tyler (July 10, 1783 – May 14, 1858) was an American Congregational clergyman and educator. He served as president of Dartmouth College between 1822 and 1828. His Reformed theology was called Tylerism, as opposed to the post-Reformed Taylorism of Nathaniel William Taylor.

Biography

To succeed President Daniel Dana, Dartmouth Trustees selected Bennett Tyler, a South Britain, Connecticut, minister and Yale graduate. Tyler was a devout leader who insisted on shouldering the responsibility of preaching in the College church, leaving the responsibility for the instruction of the senior class to one of the professors. He was successful in endowing the first scholarship at Dartmouth, intended for "the education of pious, indigent young men for the ministry," and in stabilizing the numbers of enrolled students—numbers which had plummeted during the years of the Revolutionary War.

It was during President Tyler's administration that Dartmouth students successfully petitioned the College to admit its first African American student, Edward Mitchell, in 1824.

Tyler returned to the ministry after six years in office. He was a founder, theology professor, and president of the Theological Institute of Connecticut, now Hartford Seminary, from 1834 to 1857.