SAMUEL, SIGMUND

SAMUEL, SIGMUND (1867–1962), Canadian industrialist, philanthropist, patron of the arts. Samuel was born in Toronto to Lewis and Bavarian-born Kate, who emigrated to Canada from England in 1855. Sigmund's father, Lewis, and his brother Mark began a successful hardware and scrap metal business that grew into a major steel production enterprise, raising the Samuel family to the first rank of Canada's early industrialists. Unlike some other early Canadian industrialists of Jewish heritage, the Samuel family retained a connection to their traditional roots. Members of the family were founding members of the then Orthodox Holy Blossom Congregation in its new quarters on Richmond Street, where Sigmund was first called to the Torah. Sigmund attended the elite Upper Canada College and the Toronto Model School. Reflecting the Toronto of his day, he notes in his autobiography that, even as a wealthy and acculturated industrialist with entrée to the best social circles, he was subject to antisemitism.

As a young man Samuel entered the family business and helped expand its operations, including the purchase of Algoma Steel in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. In 1930, with Samuel at the helm, the firm was a major producer of hardware items of every type, including steel tubing, pig iron, and flat sheets of steel. Samuel continued to lead the firm until his death, when it was taken over by his grandson, Ernest L. Samuel.

Samuel's legacy is enshrined in two key Toronto institutions. A keen supporter of the arts, he bequeathed money to the Royal Ontario Museum for its Canadiana Gallery of Art (formerly the Sigmund Samuel Collection). In 1954 he also gave the University of Toronto money to build a library for the humanities. Dubbed "Sig Sam" by subsequent generations of University of Toronto students, the library remains a fixture on the university's King's College Circle.

bibliography:

S. Samuel, In Return: The Autobiography of Sigmund Samuel (1963).

[Frank Bialystok (2^nd ed.)]