Samuel Simeon Fels
{{Short description|American businessman (1860–1950)}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Fels Institute of Government.jpg
| image_size = 150px
| caption = Fels Institute of Government
| birth_name =
| birth_date = February 16, 1860
| birth_place = Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S.
| death_date = June 23, 1950 (age 90)
| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_cause =
| education =
| known_for =
| spouse = Jennie May
| occupation = Soap manufacturer
| children =
| parents =
| family = Joseph Fels (brother)
}}
Samuel Simeon Fels (February 16, 1860 in Yanceyville, North Carolina – June 23, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American businessman and philanthropist.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family in Yanceyville, North Carolina, Fels family relocated to Philadelphia, where Samuel's older brother Joseph Fels founded a soap manufacturing company, Fels & Co., which found success with the product Fels-Naptha. Samuel became the company's first president, a post he held until his death at age 90.
Fels was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1939.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Samuel+Fels&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
Philanthropy
An active philanthropist, Fels helped to establish the Committee of Seventy in 1904, for political reform in Philadelphia. The city was often portrayed in the popular press of the time as "a city mired in corruption".{{Cite book |last=Rosen |first=Evelyn Bodek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a393S7_Dx0oC&dq=committee+of+seventy+philadelphia&pg=PA119 |title=The Philadelphia Fels, 1880-1920: A Social Portrait |date=2000 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3823-1 |language=en}}
in 1936, Fels established the Samuel S. Fels Fund, which provides support to Philadelphia-area non-profit organizations. In 1937, his southside Philadelphia mansion was given to the University of Pennsylvania, for the foundation of the Fels Institute of Government.{{cite book |last1=Kooi |first1=Brandon |title=Seven Highly Effective Police Leaders: 1895-Modern Times |date=27 September 2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-46524-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGZCEAAAQBAJ&dq=University+of+Pennsylvania+%22Fels+Institute+of+Government%22+founded&pg=PT166 |language=en}}
Fels is known for commissioning Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto Op. 14 in 1939.
In 1912, Henry H. Goddard dedicated his book on eugenics The Kallikak Family to Fels: "who made this study and who has followed the work from its incipiency with kindly criticism and advice".{{Cite web|last=Goddard|first=Henry Herbert|date=1912|title=The Kallikak family : a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/d7gvpd4f/items|access-date=6 December 2021|website=Wellcome Collection|language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.fels.upenn.edu Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania]
- [http://www2.fi.edu/theater/planetarium/theater-info.php The Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute]
- [http://www.samfels.org/ The Samuel S. Fels Fund]
- [http://www.med.wright.edu/lhrc/fels.html Fels Longitudinal Study]
- [http://www.isobriselli.com Iso Briselli, the adopted son of Samuel S. Fels]
- The [http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/f/fels1776.htm Samuel Simeon Fels Papers], including correspondence, records and other materials, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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Category:American business executives
Category:American people of German-Jewish descent
Category:American philanthropists
Category:Businesspeople from Philadelphia
Category:Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni
Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society