Pringles inventor is buried in a Pringles can

The inventor of the Pringles can, Fredric Baur, had some of his ashes interred in one of his own iconic tubular creations. It's a wonderfully quirky tribute, giving a final, lasting home to the very thing that made him famous and cementing his legacy in a rather unusual way.

Fredric Baur, the chemist and packaging engineer who designed the iconic Pringles cylinder, was buried inside one of his own creations following his death in 2008. His children fulfilled his long-standing request by placing a portion of his cremated remains in an Original flavoured can before interring him.

Key Facts and Figures

• Inventor: Fredric Baur (1918–2008)
• Item: Pringles can (Original flavour)
• Patent Date: 1970 (U.S. Patent 3,498,798)
• Company: Procter & Gamble
• Burial Site: Arlington Memorial Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio

Why It Matters

This choice represents the ultimate commitment to a professional legacy, transforming a mass-market snack container into a vessel for the creator's final rest.

The Architect of the Hyperbolic Paraboloid

Fredric Baur was not just a food scientist; he was an expert in storage and geometry. In the mid-1950s, Procter & Gamble tasked him with solving a fundamental problem in the snack industry: why were potato chips always greasy, stale, and broken?

Baur approached the task like an engineer rather than a cook. He spent years developing the saddle-shaped chip technically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid. This shape allowed the chips to be stacked neatly, preventing the breakage common in traditional bags.

However, the chips needed a specific home to remain stable. Baur designed the vacuum-sealed cylindrical can to provide structural integrity and maintain an airtight seal. While he eventually moved into other areas of research at P&G, the can remained his proudest achievement.

The Final Request

As Baur aged, he spoke frequently about his desire to be buried in his invention. According to his son, Larry Baur, the request was a mix of pride and a quirk of personality. When Fredric passed away at age 89, his children stopped at a Walgreens on the way to the funeral home to purchase the burial vessel.

The rest of his remains were placed in a traditional urn and buried alongside the can, while some were given to his grandchildren. Unlike other corporate inventors who might distance themselves from their commercial output, Baur viewed the cylinder as a masterpiece of functional design.

Technical Innovation and Legal Battles

The Pringles can was so effective that it caused an immediate stir in the industry. Compared to the Wild West of greasy bags, the orderly Pringles stack seemed suspicious to competitors. In fact, traditional potato chip manufacturers campaigned to have Pringles stripped of the "chip" name, arguing they were processed snacks rather than sliced potatoes.

The Food and Drug Administration eventually ruled in 1975 that Pringles could only be called chips if they provided a prominent disclaimer: "potato chips made from dried potatoes." P&G eventually pivoted to calling them "potato crisps" to avoid the legal headache. Throughout these battles, Baur’s can remained the constant, defending the fragile contents from the weight of the consumer world.

Real World Applications

• Brand Loyalty: Baur’s burial serves as the ultimate case study in brand affinity, where the creator becomes inseparable from the product.
• Engineering Durability: The can's design is still used today with minimal changes, a rarity in the rapidly evolving world of FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods).
• Packaging standards: The success of the Pringles can paved the way for other uniform stackable snacks, proving consumers value consistency over natural variation.

Interesting Connections

• Gene Wolfe: The man who perfected the Pringles frying machine went on to win every major award in Science Fiction, including the Nebula and Hugo.
• The Pringles Man: Known officially as Julius Pringles, the mascot's moustache has undergone several redesigns, but the can he inhabits has stayed almost exactly the same since Baur’s era.
• Super Bowl traditions: Pringles commercials often focus on the "stacking" mechanic, a direct result of Baur's hyperbolic paraboloid geometry.

Key Takeaways

• Fredric Baur designed the Pringles can to solve the problem of broken, greasy chips.
• His burial in the can was a genuine request to honour his primary professional legacy.
• The design was so unique that it led to legal disputes over what defines a "chip."
• Baur’s children chose the Original flavour can for his final resting place.
• The Pringles can remains one of the most successful examples of non-bag snack packaging in history.

The Pringles can is more than a snack container; it is a piece of mid-century engineering that redefined how we interact with food. For Fredric Baur, it was the definition of a life’s work—a vessel that was quite literally good enough to take with him.