Samuel M. Feldman, former chairman, CEO and president of Webster Clothes Inc. whose philanthropic interests included Jewish, educational and cultural institutions, died of cancer Jan. 8 at his home on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The former longtime Owings Mills resident was 95.
Samuel Maxwell Feldman, son of Herman Feldman, a haberdasher, and Fannie Wagenheim, who cared for the family home, was born in Roanoke, Virginia, and later moved to Portsmouth, Virginia, when his father opened Brooks Clothes, a menswear clothing store, in 1936.
In 1938, his father moved the family to Northwest Baltimore when he opened a second men’s clothing store at Baltimore and Gay streets.
After graduating from Baltimore City College in 1946, Mr. Feldman earned a bachelor’s degree in 1950 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Growing up, Mr. Feldman worked alongside his father and uncles in the business.
“After college, he couldn’t wait to join the business,” said a daughter, Dene Elizabeth Feldman, of Los Angeles.
In order not to be confused with the venerable Brooks Brothers men’s clothing store in New York City, the Feldman family resorted to a London telephone directory and selected the name Webster — which they thought had an elegant cachet to it — according to a 1987 Evening Sun profile of the business, whose new name was Webster Menswear.
Mr. Feldman, who later rose to become chairman, CEO and president of the family-owned business, eventually expanded it into a 128-store chain that operated in more than 20 states.
Mr. Feldman didn’t use a great deal of advertising and was fond of saying, “Our store is the advertising.”
In 1990, he sold the business for $19.2 million to the St. Louis-based Edison Brothers Stores Inc., and devoted himself to his numerous philanthropic interests.
His lifelong interest in philanthropy was stimulated by his parents, who supported various causes.
His father joined Zionist interests in Baltimore, contributing $50,000 to help purchase the former Old Bay Line steamer President Warfield, which in 1947 was renamed the Exodus, and transported more than 4,000 Holocaust survivors from France to Palestine, before being attacked by the British Navy.
“We had always been that kind of people who wanted to help others,” Mr. Feldman explained in a family history. “I’d see my mother always keep a little extra on hand to give to good causes.”
After selling his business, Mr. Feldman and his wife, Gretchen Vogel, an artist he married in 1954, established the Gretchen V. and Samuel M. Feldman Private Foundation Inc.
“My parents always told my sister and me to not only give money to things we are passionate about but to get involved in the process of giving, and in the organization itself,” wrote his daughter Dene, who worked with her father on the book.
Baltimore-area recipients of their philanthropy included Associated Jewish Charities, Baltimore Museum of Art, Independent Maryland Schools, and The Park School of Baltimore, where he had been a trustee and later served as board president.
He was also a founder of Beth Am Synagogue.
In 1985, the couple built their home on Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard, and moved there full time in 2003. Mr. Feldman’s wife died in 2008.
He was a founder and supporter of the Chilmark-based National Widowers’ Association, Martha’s Vineyard Film Center and the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, among others.
Mr. Feldman enjoyed running and was in his 80s when he completed the New York City Marathon, family members said.
Services were held Jan. 9 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Feldman is survived by another daughter, Leigh Erika Feldman, of New York City; a sister, Shirley Katz Dahl, of Palm Beach, Florida; and three grandchildren. His companion of 15 years, Marilyn Meyerhoff, died in 2023.
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