Taylor receiving gift from Suracks


Fort Wayne philanthropists Chuck and Lisa Surack are giving Taylor University $5 million to build a new facility for its film and media program, the Upland school announced Thursday.

The Surack Center for Entrepreneurship and Media Arts will also house Taylor’s entrepreneurial and innovation hub. The university hopes to break ground on the building this year, a news release said.

The donation was announced at the university’s semiannual meeting of its board of visitors, a volunteer group that advises the president and other campus leaders. Chuck Surack, founder of Sweetwater Sound, received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Taylor in 2018 and recently joined the group.

“What Chuck and Lisa Surack have done, through and with Sweetwater, is precisely the kind of entrepreneurial energy we want our students to embrace and embody,” university President D. Michael Lindsay said in a statement.

Locally, the Suracks have supported the University of Saint Francis and Purdue University Fort Wayne, which celebrated the opening of the Purdue Fort Wayne Sweetwater Music Center in 2018.

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About Surack Family Foundation

Chuck and his wife Lisa have a passion for partnering with organizations to help develop confident and resilient young people, advocating for those with mental illness, investing in the community they call home, and supporting local music and arts programs. It was this passion that led them to start the Surack Family Foundation so they could make a greater impact in Northeast Indiana.