William Daniel Tyler

William Daniel “Danny” Tyler, Sr. died peacefully from complications of cancer on September 18, 2018, with family and friends by his side.  Danny, a remarkable man, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 31, 1946.  Danny’s mother, Janie Tyler, was an “old school” RN (freshly starched hat and uniform and out the door hustle, bustle at five thirty every morning) and the Nurse Administrator at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock.  Although strictly professional on duty, she had a lively sense of humor, a fact that led some of us to suspect she had connived with her doctor to have a Halloween baby.  Danny’s father, T.E. “Tom” Tyler was a well-respected businessman and entrepreneur in Arkansas who served multiple terms as State Insurance Commissioner and was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor.  Danny attended Little Rock High School and was active in student affairs, including Boy’s Nation and Key Club.  As a junior, he was elected by delegates to the national convention to serve the next year as International Trustee on the Key Club International governing Board. He chose to attend the University of Alabama instead of his beloved University of Arkansas, because as he said with characteristic wry wit, he wanted to attend an “eastern liberal university.”  Danny earned both his Bachelor’s degree in political science and Master’s degree in English at Alabama, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity (and Life Loyal Sig).  While in graduate school he served his country as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves, and he continued to so serve to complete his six-year commitment when he left Tuscaloosa to live and work in Washington, D.C. During his time at Alabama, Danny also studied and obtained his pilot’s license and numerous other aviation ratings from instruments to multi engine transport.  One such certification was Flight Instructor, and as such, he trained (Vietnam War Era) Army and Air Force ROTC students who would later become fixed and rotary wing military pilots.  He also flew crop dusters which is one of the riskiest, most demanding types of flying a civilian aviator can do.  He would fly numerous engagements all day long, often 4 to 6 feet off the ground at up to 150 miles an hour; making acrobatic 180 degree turns after each pass over cultivated fields that often contained difficult to spot obstacles, and do it in a single engine plane loaded with fuel and 500 gallons (4,000 pounds) of chemicals…with all due respect to Maverick and Goose, now that was the real “danger zone.”  As an avid aviator, Danny owned, at one time or another, a Cessna 172, a fully acrobatic Stearman biplane, which he flew to the max of its capabilities (and perhaps a bit more), and a twin engine Piper Seneca.  Following graduation from Alabama, Danny moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for Congressman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas.  Mr. Mills was, at the time, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which (given the Constitutional requirement that all funding bills originate in the House of Representatives) is by some measures a position second in power only to the President.  Thus, at an early age, Danny was often in the middle of some of the significant Congressional tussles of the times.  Also, while in D.C. he studied at Georgetown University Law School, but returned to Little Rock to complete his law degree at the University of Arkansas, where he graduated with honors in 1976. Danny was in private practice in Washington for several years, at the law firm of Riddell, Fox, Holroyd & Jackson, P.C. and briefly, in Mobile, Alabama.  For the rest of his career, he practiced law in Tampa, Florida, where he became a senior partner at the prestigious Firm of Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson, PA.  His specialties included public finance, local government law, and special project financing, and he achieved prominence as Bond or Disclosure Counsel on a number of important projects.  Danny was known throughout the state of Florida and in surrounding states as an expert on special district municipal finance.  He was a key person in structuring hundreds of districts and helping to secure the funding required to build them.  Indeed, if it were not for Danny’s expertise and creative ingenuity, many communities might not have been created. Although Danny continued in active practice in Tampa, he and his beloved wife of forty-two years, Patricia Buerger Tyler, returned to Danny’s adopted home state where they resided at Point Clear, Alabama.  In addition to his wife, Danny is survived by his son, William Daniel “Dan” Tyler, Jr. (Jolien) and granddaughter, Rebecca, as well as his pal Doberman, Gus. The family wish to express our heartfelt gratitude for the skilled and compassionate care of Danny during the time of his final illness by Hughes Home Care.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in remembrance of Danny Tyler to Wilmer Hall Children’s Home by email at wilmerhall.org/donate or to Wilmer Hall, 3811 Old Shell Road, Mobile, AL 36608. ARRANGEMENTS BYWOLFE-BAYVIEWFUNERAL HOMES& CREMATORY, INC.19698 GREENO RDFAIRHOPE, AL 36532251-990-7775