Ball Legacy at Ball State University – Part 3
Rosemary Ball (1909-1997) was the youngest of Frank C. and Elizabeth Brady Ball’s five children. In 1932, she married Alexander M. Bracken (1908-1991). Five years later they moved into their newly constructed house at 10 Berwyn Road (now 2200 West Berwyn Road) in Westwood, a subdivision that had been developed by her brother E. Arthur Ball and Charles V. Bender. Toward the end of their lives, the couple decided that they wanted to give their home to Ball State as the residence for the university’s president. After Rosemary’s death, Ball State accepted the Georgian Revival home and in 1999, following some renovations, President Worthen and his wife moved into Bracken House.
Bracken House
Alexander Bracken, a graduate of Ball State Teachers College, served as an attorney for Ball Brothers Company and later Ball Corporation from 1933 to 1973 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors from 1970 to 1978. In addition, he was appointed to the Ball State Teachers College Board by Governor George Craig in 1954, replacing George A. Ball who died the following year. He continued to serve through the institution’s transition to a university, retiring in 1980. In 1974, Ball State’s Board of Trustees honored Bracken by naming the new university library after him. The Alexander M. Bracken Library opened in 1975.
Alexander M. Bracken Library
Bracken Family at Alexander M. Bracken Library Opening
Frog Baby
In 1993, a semicircular basin north of the Bracken Library became the new home for the bronze sculpture Frog Baby. Frog Baby was cast by the sculptor Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons in 1937, in time to become part of an exhibit of contemporary American artists which was displayed at Ball State later that year. When the exhibit ended, Frog Baby was one of 27 pieces purchased by Frank C. Ball for his art collection. These acquisitions were then placed on display in the new Arts Building, which was completed in 1935.
Frank A. Bracken
The Bracken’s eldest child, Frank (1934-2016), followed in his father’s footsteps, both at Ball Corporation and Ball State University. He served on the university’s Board of Trustees from 1980 to 2012. In 2010, his service was recognized when Ball State named the oldest building on campus, the Frank A. Bracken Administration Building. This structure, dedicated on August 28, 1899, was the one and only building at the then Eastern Indiana Normal University. It would be thirty years before Ball State Teachers College would emerge.
When Ball State decided to build a new telecommunications building, it was only natural that it would be named after Edmund F. Ball (1905-2000), a man who’d had a major impact on telecommunications in East Central Indiana and a loyal supporter of the university. The Edmund F. Ball Communication Building was dedicated on September 30, 1988. Today it houses the Department of Telecommunications, the Center for Information and Communication Sciences, WIPB-TV and the WBST radio station.
There is another building on the Ball State campus named after the eldest son of Edmund Burke Ball. The Edmund F. Ball Medical Education Building was completed in 2000. It houses the Indiana University School of Medicine-Muncie, the Family Medicine Residency Program and provides training for Ball State students as research assistants.
E.F. Ball Communications Building, E.F Ball Medical Education Building, E.F. Ball at Dedication, E.F. Ball Building Groundbreaking
John and Janice B. Fisher
Also located in the Edmund F. Ball Medical Education Building is the Janice B. Fisher Learning Center. This seems particularly appropriate since Janice Ball (1916-2010) was the youngest sister of Edmund F. Ball. She married John W. Fisher (1915-2009) in 1940. Mr. Fisher was an important part of Ball Brothers and Ball Corporation from 1943-1992, serving as President and C.E.O. from 1970-1981. The Learning Center, which opened in 2014, uses special high-tech mannequins to provide simulation training for IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital employees, including new nurses and medical residents.
John and Janice Fisher Institute of Health and Well-Being
In 1986, Ball State opened the Institute for Wellness in an effort to improve the health of Indiana’s citizens and promote research into wellness-related academic fields. The name was changed in 1993, becoming the John and Janice Fisher Institute for Wellness and then changed twice more, in 1998 and 2013. The university finally settled on the John and Janice Fisher Institute of Health and Well-Being in 2015. It is dedicated to an interdisciplinary focus on research and community projects related to health and wellness.
And finally, there’s one other Ball State facility associated with the Fishers. It’s sort of related to health but in a very different way. In 2001, Ball State opened a football training center, which is located at the south end of the stadium. Four years later, when a major renovation was proposed for the newly named Schuemann Stadium, the name of the training facility was changed to the John W. and Janice B. Fisher Football Training Complex as a thank you to the Fishers for their financial support of the university. The complex includes a weight room for strength training and conditioning, a nutrition center, the football team’s locker room and a sports medicine facility.
John W. and Janice B. Fisher Football Training Complex
When I graduated from Ball State, I had no idea how many ways the Ball family had contributed to my education. I only wish it was possible to thank them.
