ABOUT ELAINE JACOB

The Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, located in Wayne State's signature building, Old Main, opened in 1997. The gallery hosts exhibitions of important national and international contemporary art and supplements the Art Department Gallery as a second major art gallery for the university. In 2007, Jacob donated gifts to establish Wayne State's Elaine L. Jacob Endowed Chair in the Visual Arts, a fund which supports nationally prominent faculty members in Wayne State's James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History.

"Elaine L. Jacob was a leader in her field, a woman who broke barriers and shared her success with others," said Wayne State College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Dean Matthew Seeger. "Her legacy includes not only the ongoing success of MJS Packaging but also the programs at Wayne State University that bear her name."

Born in Detroit in 1921, she was a third-generation Jacob family member. The family founded one of the nation's oldest packaging companies, M. Jacob & Sons, now MJS Packaging. Jacob worked at the Livonia, Michigan-based company from 1953 until her retirement in 1983.

She was responsible for MJS Packaging's entry into plastic packaging and headed its plastics division, which became a significant part of the company. She will be remembered as a pioneer of rigid packaging and one of the key people responsible for MJS Packaging's 129 years of success. "In the 1950s and '60s, it was quite rare for a female to be in sales for an industrial business or to be part of a senior management team, but Elaine did both," said MJS Packaging President David Lubin. "Her contributions to our company, our industry and the community were enormous."

Jacob had a special love for Wayne State University in Detroit and maintained deep connections with the campus community over many decades. She earned a bachelor of fine arts in industrial design at Wayne State in 1942. She was a frequent supporter of Wayne State's extensive University Art Collection. The original home of her grandfather - M. Jacob & Sons co-founder, Max Jacob - stands on the university's campus and serves as the president's residence. A renovation of the home was underwritten by Jacob and her family in the late 1970s.