Bernard Samuel

Mayor Samuel proclaims City Defense Week, November 24, 1941

Bernard "Barney" Samuel (March 9, 1880 – January 12, 1954) was a Republican Pennsylvania politician who served as mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1941 to 1952.

Samuel first won election to City Council in 1923. When in 1939 George Connell, then president of City Council, became acting mayor upon the death of S. Davis Wilson, Samuel succeeded to the position of president pro tempore. Upon the death in August 1941, of Mayor Robert Eneas Lamberton, however, Samuel assumed the mayoralty for the remainder of Lamberton's term. Samuel won re-election to the mayor's office in 1943 and 1947, defeating Democrats William C. Bullitt and Richardson Dilworth respectively, to become the first multi-term mayor since William S. Stokley (1872–81).

Bernard Samuel's mayoralty was the longest in Philadelphia's history. In defending the political machine he served, Mayor Samuel ironically prepared the city for reform by endorsing creation of Philadelphia's highly-touted City Planning Commission and supporting 1947's Better Philadelphia Exhibition, which subjected the failures of a "corrupt and contented" Republican political machine to harsh scrutiny and made the elections of 1949 and 1951 for city controller and mayor, respectively, landmarks in the city's political history. Samuel was succeeded by reformist mayors Joseph Sill Clark, later Democratic Party United States Senator, and Richardson Dilworth, later a Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania who was also mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 1960. Samuel remains the last Republican elected mayor of Philadelphia.

Mayor Samuel is buried at Arlington Cemetery in suburban Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

External links

• Bernard Samuel at Find a Grave

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Eneas Lamberton	Mayor of Philadelphia 1941–1952	Succeeded by Joseph S. Clark