The Inventor of the Pringles Can Is Buried in One

For decades, potato chips were a snack food plagued by two persistent problems: breakage and staleness. Consumers were often left with a bag of greasy, fragmented crumbs. In the mid-1960s, Procter & Gamble tasked organic chemist Fredric Baur with solving this packaging puzzle. His solution was a complete system: a new, saddle-shaped chip (technically a hyperbolic paraboloid) made from a potato dough that could be stacked perfectly, and the iconic cylindrical, foil-lined can to house them. This design not only prevented the chips from being crushed but also provided an airtight seal that kept them fresh far longer than a traditional bag.

Baur's invention was a triumph of food science and engineering, and he remained immensely proud of it for the rest of his life. He often told his family that when he died, he wanted to be buried in one of his cans. After he passed away in 2008, his children made a stop at a Walgreens on the way to the funeral home to purchase a Pringles can to serve as a makeshift urn. They debated which flavor to choose before settling on the classic Original. Honoring his unusual request, they placed a portion of their father's cremated remains inside the can, which was then interred at his burial plot in Cincinnati, Ohio.