Kenneth E. Tyler

Ken Tyler was born in East Chicago, Indiana in 1931. His father was Romanian and his mother Hungarian, and his parents both emigrated as young children to United States. There Tyler’s father (whose family name was Tyira, converted to Tyler in the US) worked in the Indiana steel mills from 12 years of age and also learned the trade of a stonemason. This background gave Tyler an early appreciation of the need for technical excellence.

Encouraged by his school music teacher, Tyler developed an interest in the visual arts and subsequently studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from 1950 to 1951. Coming from a family of modest means, Tyler sought paid employment throughout his student years. From 1951 to 1952, he studied liberal arts at Indiana University, which, according to Tyler, consisted of "one semester at the campus in Bloomington, Indiana and one semester at Gary, Indiana extension while I worked full time in the Gary steel mill and attended evening classes at the extension". Originally Tyler had planned further studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. It was during the Korean War, and while applying for his passport in September 1952, he was drafted for military service. After undergoing basic training, he excelled as an officer candidate and won the opportunity to return to college, where he was given the title of ‘Regimental Staff Artist’, maintained an active private painting studio and also edited the Officer Corps newspaper.

Tyler studied further following his time in the army, earning a bachelor's in art education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957. Tyler then studied lithography under Garo Antreasian at the John Herron School of Art (now Herron School of Art and Design) in Indiana, graduating with a Master of Art Education in 1963.