Frank Ball and his brothers starting Ball Corp (publicly traded mid-cap) about 130 years ago.  Profiled in InvBizDaily a week or so ago.  Ball State is named after the family.  Frank visited Bowling Gree for a while.  "Having become weary of the monotonous life in Bowling Green and ready for a change, I decided to run down to Muncie and see what they had to offer."

Even 130 years ago, Ball knew that BG is weak, Muncie vastly superior.

And not quite the whole story.

Frank and his brothers originally looked at Ridgeville Indiana due to the quantity of natural gas reserves that could feed their glass manufacturing and the 5 railways that intersected there. Their vision of establishing the Indiana Normal School there moved with them to Muncie where they found an equally attractive site, just as much gas and adequate train lines. They established a hospital, opened a chain of Ball department stores like Rikes/Elder beerman/CarsonPirie ultimately sold off to Macys and funded the University.

The Balls ran this town for years quashing the establishment of a second hospital every time it was brought up by fighting the certificate of need at the State House and giving money to the University in amounts that it became Ball State Teachers College till late in the 60's. They have died and subsequently moved their home offices to Colorado, the hospital has just been sold and renamed IU-BMH and withthe pasing of the original Ball family the YMCA, Minnetrista Center and numbers of other organizations are looking to other philanthropists to fund their activiites. Locally they were royalty treated like the Kennedys, shutting down the entire radiology department when Ed needed an MRI and kowtowing to his needs when making Board decisions at the Y. I was asked to leave the Board when I opposed the purchase of a property on Lake Tippecanoe that made absolutley no sense fiscally for the Y to take on the debt and upkeep. When one of the daughters was shut out of a sorority all sorority houses were shut down and became sororities in name only living  and doing service projects in the dorms just really returning in houses rather recently. 

As much good at the Balls did for this town there was a price. Having served on several Boards and Councils I have had the opportunity to see how much and where their money went. As a former 3 time Director of the Muncie Endurathon I enjoyed the use of the Balls contacts worldwide and their backing to help secure the World Triathlon Championship for Muncie. Their support keeps Muncie as the second oldest Triathlon in the world, The Hawaii Ironman being the oldest. Their interst in the sport and Ed using the pools late into his 90's kept us athletes very happy for years.  They made this a really nice place for people to live and in their own way were like folks in many towns...The Pattersons and Ketterings in Dayton, The FIrestones in Akron....you can find many examples in towns across America where men of vision gave back to the communities they lived in. As I travel coast to coast I am always carefuyl to see who was behind each town and what legacy they left. Interesting histories for sure.

More germaine to our needs and wants

13 or 14 53' foot trailers leave Dunkirk IN with metal beer cans headed for Busch owned breweries each day.  Ball has long been in the metal can and bottle division that supplies the Beer industry. One of my friends has the dubious honor of being a taste tester that travels to breweries to ensure that the product does not have any taste picked up by the packaging.

Related .....one of the Coors family invented the process of  recyling cans as he ws tired of seeing his name in ditches along the Colorado byways. Other manufacturers followed suit years later.

Ball Mason jars are still produced in Dunkirk IN in a plant bought by St Gobain. If anyone has a knowledge of plastics tech and needs a niche money making idea I would be glad to supply you with a product that is currently a need for home canning folks in this recession.