Samuel L. Abrams Foundation

Samuel L. Abrams, a Harrisburg businessman, distinguished himself during a lifetime of participation in his community through philanthropic, social and political activities. Born in Lithuania, Mr. Abrams immigrated with his parents to the United States and Harrisburg at the age of three. He attended Harrisburg city schools, graduating from Harrisburg Technical High School in 1922. After obtaining his degree in business administration from Penn State, he joined B. Abrams & Sons, the scrap metal processing firm that his father, brother and he founded. When Mr. Abrams attended Harrisburg Tech, he had taken a commercial curriculum because he had not believed that his family could afford to send him to college. At his graduation, though, when he realized that most of his friends were going to college, he decided that he wanted to go as well. By the time he graduated from Penn State in 1926, he had been instilled with a strong appreciation for the value of a college education.

In 1966, shortly after completing eight years as a member of the board of directors of the Harrisburg School District, Mr. Abrams established the Samuel L. Abrams Foundation to help deserving graduates and faculty members of the Harrisburg school system further their educations and obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees.