MSU to Receive a $47 Million Commitment to Expand Packaging School
Michigan State University (MSU) says it will receive a $47 million commitment—the largest in the history of the School of Packaging—to support packaging research and education for generations.
Charles “Chuck” Frasier, who graduated from MSU in 1970, and his wife, Jacqueline “Jackie” Frasier, intend for the money to provide a strategic roadmap for the school’s growth through several key designations, MSU said in a news release.
- Capital transformation: Some money will be used for the next phase of the expansion to the Packaging Building, creating modern labs and collaborative spaces.
- Strategic leadership: An endowed director’s fund will ensure MSU continues to attract administrative and academic talent.
- Graduate excellence: A new fellowship endowment will provide support for the next generation of doctoral and master’s researchers.
- Institutional agility: A mix of endowed and expendable funds will address the school’s most pressing immediate needs and emerging initiatives.
Their philanthropic investment leverages a blended gift structure that combines immediate cash support with a charitable bequest.
A history at MSU
“This gift is just the latest in a series of thoughtful, visionary gifts the Frasiers have made to honor the program that launched Chuck’s successful career since graduating from MSU in 1970 and turned Jackie into the enthusiastic honorary Spartan she is today,” MSU says.
Chuck Frasier took Packaging 101 as a civil engineering major. While taking out the trash at school one day, it hit him that everything was packaging.
“It sounds like a niche field, but it’s really, really not,” Chuck Frasier says. “My Bachelor of Science degree in packaging was my ticket to ride, and it opened all kinds of doors. It has changed my life.”
He began his career as a packaging engineer with GE International in Manhattan, later transitioning into sales while gaining global experience.
Driven by an entrepreneurial vision, he founded Dixie Box and Crating Company to meet the needs of international shipping.
Following Dixie Box, he founded American Box and Crating before retiring in 2019.
“This gift positions Michigan State to accelerate its leadership in packaging education and research in ways we have never seen before,” says Matt Daum, MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources dean and associate provost. “It allows us to build a true hub for innovation, especially in sustainability, and to bring together top minds from industry, government, and academia. This will be a place where ideas move faster, partnerships grow stronger, and the future of packaging takes shape.”
Chuck Frasier says he hopes someone “cracks the code” for sustainable packaging.
“I know we’re working on it, I know we have the right people on it, and I know a lot of materials are becoming more and more recyclable,” he says. “But we still have trash mountains, and I think the answer to those trash mountains is going to come out of packaging, and it’s going to happen here at MSU.”
MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., says it is difficult to envision the future of the packaging industry without the MSU School of Packaging.
“Chuck and Jackie’s love for Michigan State, and for their academic ‘home’ in the School of Packaging, is clear in every conversation, every visit to campus, and, of course, in every gift they’ve made,” Guskiewicz says.
