Samuel Simeon Fels

Who was Samuel Simeon Fels?

Samuel Simeon Fels was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Early in Samuel's life his 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 which he held until his death. An active philanthropist, in 1936, Fels established the Samuel S. Fels Fund, which provides support to Philadelphia-area non-profits, even today. Fels also founded the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. Fels is known for commissioning Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto Op. 14 in 1939.