Continuing Tyler’s Legacy…

Tyler was born on December 29, 1988 in Corvallis, Oregon, and grew up in Tangent, Oregon. He graduated from South Albany High School where he played football, basketball, and ran track. Tyler continued his football career at Western Oregon University, red shirting his freshman year and playing wide receiver his sophomore year, before his initial cancer diagnosis.

Tyler was diagnosed with nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 21. At the time, he was a college athlete, pursing a degree in fire science.

Treatments included various chemotherapy regimens over the years, tons of extended hospitalizations... but remission never lasted long. He received a stem cell transplant from an anonymous donor at age 27, and he finally became cancer free. Complications from the transplant, including graft versus host disease, many collapsed lungs, aggressive infections from being immune compromised, and ultimately lung failure, forced us to say goodbye on September 18, 2019, at the age of 30.

Tyler was a talented, self-taught woodworker, creating beautiful hand-crafted pieces. He also farmed alongside his father from a young age.

He was an avid golfer, loved playing football and basketball with friends, and was always ready for a BBQ and a game of corn-hole.

Tyler had such a generous heart. He was such a philanthropist, constantly building beautiful items for local nonprofit events to raffle off for their benefit. He built and sold hundreds of signs for a friend’s father’s lung transplant, giving 100% of the money to the family. He was always quick to buy an extra meal or coffee for any homeless person he saw, too.

Tyler was a selfless friend - always helping others, whether it was lending his golf clubs, his car, his power tools, or his time. Any knowledge he had, he happily shared.

We spoke many times about creating a foundation in order to help other young cancer patients in similar, life altering situations, so they could focus their energy on healing. He was generously awarded a grant during his stem cell transplant, which encouraged his plan to start our own way of giving back. His legacy will continue through this foundation. Our hope is that year after year, we can continue funding grants in Tyler’s memory.