Samuel Simeon Fels

Samuel Simeon Fels
Fels Institute of Government
Born	February 16, 1860 Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	June 23, 1950 (age 90) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Soap manufacturer
Spouse	Jennie May
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.^[1]

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".^[2]

in 1936, Fels established the Samuel S. Fels Fund, which provides support to Philadelphia-area non-profit organizations. In 1937, his southside Philadelphia mansion ws given to the University of Pennsylvania, for the foundation of the Fels Institute of Government.^[3]

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".^[4]

References

1. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
2. Rosen, Evelyn Bodek (2000). The Philadelphia Fels, 1880-1920: A Social Portrait. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3823-1.
3. Kooi, Brandon (27 September 2021). Seven Highly Effective Police Leaders: 1895-Modern Times. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-46524-2.
4. Goddard, Henry Herbert (1912). "The Kallikak family : a study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 6 December 2021.

External links

• Fels Institute of Government, University of Pennsylvania
• The Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute
• The Samuel S. Fels Fund
• Fels Longitudinal Study
• Iso Briselli, the adopted son of Samuel S. Fels
• The Samuel Simeon Fels Papers, including correspondence, records and other materials, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.