Tyler was a loving friend to all. His mother, Darla Ryan, said her son had a passion for learning and was always able to make strong, lasting connections with the people he met.

“Tyler was just a very outgoing, well spoken, fun-loving, compassionate, intelligent person that everybody seemed to love,” Darla said. “You know, he made friends easily.” 

Darla said Tyler, a nuclear engineering junior, followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, an aerospace engineer, in having a strong passion for learning, no matter the subject. 

“He loved to learn,” Darla said. “He always excelled in math and science. He spent hours just on his phone learning things [like] Spanish or whatever he was interested in … he had a real love of learning.”

Darla said Tyler spent quality time with his friends and family in a variety of ways because he always enjoyed their company.

“He loved computer games,” Darla said. “Him and his roommates loved to play volleyball … [and] of course he also loved to eat. One of our favorite memories of him is just the joy he took in food … he loved to cook.”

Tyler’s compassion for his friends and family was often expressed through cooking, Darla said.

“When he did come home from college he really enjoyed hanging out with his dad and I in the kitchen cooking meals together,” Darla said. “He was learning how to make a lot of different types of cookies and his next endeavor was going to be to learn how to bake bread, but he also prepared meals quite often too.”

Between learning, cooking and volleyball, Darla said Tyler also had a lifelong passion for music and played the trumpet in the Rockwall High School’s Marching Band, jazz band, pit orchestra and Garland’s Community Theater Pit Orchestra. 

“Music was very important to him,” Darla said. “He played in the jazz band in high school [and] they went to state, their jazz band was great. He always had a love of jazz music.”

Tyler will forever be remembered by all those he touched, as stated eloquently by The Rockwall Times.

“May Tyler’s life be a reminder to let your hair down in the wind, to savor your dessert and to be support for those you love.”