A Legacy Rooted in Philanthropy
The five Ball brothers pose for a portrait. Left to right: William C. Ball, Frank C. Ball, Lucius L. Ball, George A. Ball, and Edmund B. Ball. Photos courtesy of Ball State Photo Repository
Four descendants of the Ball brothers share memories of the University their family has graciously supported for more than 100 years.
Philanthropy and Ball State University have always gone hand-in-hand.
In fact, it’s the very basis upon which the institution was founded by five forward-thinking brothers from New York more than a century ago.
In 1917, brothers Lucius L., William C., Edmund B., Frank C., and George A. Ball—industrialists who had moved to Muncie near the turn of the century looking to expand their glass container business—purchased the land and buildings of a failed teacher training school and donated them to the State of Indiana.
The Ball brothers recognized higher education as a means to enhance the city’s growth and development. Their gift became the Indiana State Normal School, Eastern Division, which opened in 1918 to address the state’s growing need for quality teachers.
The brothers’ generous donation, which covered 70 acres of property—10 acres containing school buildings and a dorm—marked just the beginning of their ongoing engagement with the new Muncie college.
Early in 1922, the Ball brothers announced an additional gift of $250,000 to the Normal School to build a gymnasium and to fund other capital projects. That same year, recognizing the family’s generosity, the school’s Board of Trustees changed the institution’s name to Ball Teachers College. In 1929, it was renamed Ball State Teachers College by the Indiana General Assembly.
In 1965, in recognition of the college’s phenomenal growth in enrollment and facilities and the variety and quality of its educational programs and services, the Indiana General Assembly changed the institution’s name to Ball State University.
As the Ball family grew, so did its interest in the progress and advancement of Ball State and the surrounding city. Having already provided financial gifts to assist in securing buildings for the Muncie YWCA and YMCA, the family in 1926 established its Ball Brothers Foundation. In 1929, Ball Memorial Hospital—an urgently needed medical facility and nurses home—was presented as a gift to the City of Muncie by the Ball brothers.
Since that time, through private family gifts and independent charitable organizations such as Ball Brothers Foundation, the George and Frances Ball Foundation, the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation, and others, the Ball family continues to make a significant impact on Ball State and its students, faculty, staff, and alumni. That connection represents the country’s longest-standing relationship between a giving family and a public institution of higher education.
Beneficence during its dedication ceremony on Sept. 26, 1937. The statue, funded in part by Muncie residents, symbolizes the generosity of the Ball brothers.
Hear from four Ball brothers descendants—all of whom serve on Ball Brothers Foundation’s board of directors—who share their memories and thoughts on their family’s legacy at Ball State.
James A. “Jim” Fisher
Grandson, Edmund B. Ball
Chairman, Ball Brothers Foundation Board of Directors
Ball State’s current capital campaign, Our Call to Beneficence, certainly conjures many great family memories for Jim Fisher.
Jim’s father, John W. Fisher, former president and chairman of Ball Corp., served in a number of key roles in past University campaigns, including on the national committee for the “Wings for the Future” fundraising effort (1993, more than $44 million raised), the “Above and Beyond” campaign (2002, nearly $113 million raised), and the “Ball State Bold” capital campaign (2011, more than $210 million raised). He was also chairman of the “Drive to Distinction” campaign committee that led to the renovation and expansion of Scheumann Stadium.
Jim’s mother, Janice Kelsey Ball Fisher—daughter of Edmund B. Ball—was also very involved in the philanthropic scene in and around Ball State and Muncie. She was particularly interested in health and fitness, as evidenced by her $4.35 million donation in 2000 with her husband to create the Fisher Distinguished Professorship in Wellness and Gerontology, and an endowed chair in the same field. The gift also helped the University develop a community wellness outreach program and expand Scheumann Stadium to include the Fisher Training Complex.
Also, in 1988, the couple donated $2 million to establish the John & Janice Fisher Chair in Exercise Science, which also helped finance the construction of Worthen Arena. In recognition of their generosity, the University renamed its existing wellness institute the John & Janice Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology.
Like William Bracken, Jim Fisher, who also spent his childhood in Muncie, said his parents emphasized the importance of adequately preserving the legacy of beneficence that his grandfather and his four brothers started.
“I think we grew up feeling like we were normal like most every other family, but my parents also made it quite clear that there was a family legacy there, and that it was important for us to acknowledge and understand the responsibility that comes with that,” said Jim, who worked for Ball Corp. for more than three decades. “They said that no matter where we ended up living, being a part of the community and giving back to it through time and treasure is a way to share our blessings, much like our grandparents did.”
Jim, formerly chairman of the IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital Board of Directors, board member of Delaware Advancement Corporation, and advisory board member of Old National Bank, now lives in North Carolina.
Frank Petty, ’91
Great-grandson, Frank C. Ball
Vice Chairman, Ball Brothers Foundation Board of Directors
As a Ball State graduate and Ball brothers descendent, Frank Petty has a unique perspective on his family’s local impact.
Frank, who grew up in Muncie and earned his bachelor’s degree in History from Ball State in 1991, recalls stories from his grandmother, Margaret Ball Petty, daughter of Frank C. Ball. One story involved her father arriving home one day to tell the family, “Well, we bought a college.”
“I always tell people that in their wildest dreams, the Ball brothers never could have imagined the impact that the University would be making in the community more than a century later,” said Frank Petty, who was named after his great-grandfather, Frank C. Ball.
Margaret Ball Petty, according to her grandson, was a “woman ahead of her time.” She succeeded her husband as president of Ball Stores and was a director of Ball Corp. She was also an accomplished pilot and artist. In 1976, through the Margaret Ball Petty Foundation, she was instrumental in procuring the nine-foot bronze statue, “The Passing of the Buffalo,” by Cyrus Dallin, for Muncie’s downtown district, as a memorial to her late husband, Fred J. Petty.
That love of art, which was passed down from Frank C. Ball, who had a significant art collection, led to the construction of the Fine Arts Building in 1935. In 1991, the gallery changed its name to the Ball State University Museum of Art, and in 2011, the renovated museum was renamed the David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA) in honor of the generous gifts of David Owsley, Frank C. Ball’s grandson and Margaret Ball Petty’s nephew.
Today, DOMA, in addition to its utility as an educational tool for Ball State students and faculty, continues to be a community resource and point of pride for the city and region, hosting several free public exhibitions for thousands of guests annually.
“I know my father and grandmother both felt like they were at a better place in life because of the success that the Ball brothers had in Muncie. And they felt it was very important to give back to the community and the University,” Frank Petty said. “The Museum of Art is free and open to the public and has an incredible and extensive collection. And I think that’s one of the many fine examples of the family opening its arms to the Muncie community and saying, ‘We’re doing this for you. We’re here because of you, and we’re doing this because of you.’”
Frank, who is currently principal of Walnut and Charles Properties, is a former member of the Camp Crosley YMCA Board of Managers and former board member of The Children’s House, a Montessori school. He lives in Traverse City, Mich.
Jud Fisher
Great-grandson, Edmund B. Ball
President & Chief Executive Officer, Ball Brothers Foundation
Coming from a small town in Michigan, Jud Fisher never forgot his childhood trips to the “big city” of Muncie, where his family’s presence was everywhere, from Ball Corp. and its factories on the southside, to Ball Stores downtown, to Ball State University and Ball Memorial Hospital on the westside.
So, when Jud moved to Muncie permanently in 1996 to take a job at the hospital and then was tapped to lead Ball Brothers Foundation in 2003, he made it his mission not only to thoroughly learn and respect the Ball family history in the area, but to use that local knowledge to maintain his family’s legacy into the next generation and beyond.
“I just totally dove in,” Jud said. “I’m proud of the name, and I just want to be able to support this community to the best of my ability and support the mission of the foundation. And having this University here, it’s incredible.”
In 2023, Ball Brothers Foundation, under Jud’s leadership, awarded 174 grants to organizations in Muncie, Delaware County, and throughout Indiana. Those grants totaled $8.8 million, the second-highest single-year payout in the foundation’s history. The foundation also continues to provide vital funding for many Ball State-related projects, including a $1 million initial grant in 2018 to support the University’s historic partnership with Muncie Community Schools.
To Jud, continuing to make a positive difference for the University his family helped establish more than 100 years ago is an “incredible feeling.”
“It’s just amazing to me, the age of the foundation and the connection with Ball State, and how important Ball State is to the city, this region, and beyond,” Jud said. “It’s just a source of pride, and it’s a privilege and an honor to be able to serve on the foundation named after this family that works so closely with the University.”
William M. Bracken
Grandson, Frank C. Ball
Director, Ball Brothers Foundation Board of Directors
Board of Directors, George and Frances Ball Foundation
Growing up in Muncie, William Bracken remembers listening in as his father, Alexander Bracken, would host then-Ball State President John R. Emens and other University leaders at their historic Westwood Neighborhood home—later gifted to Ball State to use as the University’s presidential residence now known as Bracken House—to discuss a multitude of important topics about the state of the institution, the city, business, and more.
Alexander Bracken, a lawyer by trade who spent 45 years with Ball Brothers Co., later Ball Corp., retiring as chairman in 1978, also spent 15 years as president of Ball State’s Board of Trustees. In 1974, Ball State named its brand-new campus library, which opened the following year, in his honor.
“I would sit in on discussions that they had, particularly about the importance of the University in the community,” William said. “My father just felt that education was an important factor of a thriving community.”
William said his mother, Rosemary Ball Bracken, Frank C. Ball’s daughter, also instilled in her children the importance of grace and humility as a member of one of the more prominent families in the area.
She led by example as a member of the founding board of the Minnetrista Cultural Foundation and as a board member of the George and Frances Ball Foundation.
“What she tried to pass on was that, without being trite, those who are given a lot, there’s a lot expected of them,” William said. “She liked to put the focus on the fact that if we have an opportunity to do good things in the community, then let’s do them.”
William, who is retired after a career in real estate, currently lives in Minneapolis, and enjoys spending time in Arizona. He is also an emeritus trustee of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
William’s brother, Frank A. Bracken, also served as the president of Ball State’s Board of Trustees. The Frank A. Bracken Administration Building—the oldest building on campus—is named in his honor.
