Samuel Simeon Fels

Samuel Simeon Fels (born February 16, 1860 in Yanceyville, North Carolina - 1950) 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.

Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania

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.