Bernard Samuel

Bernard ("Barney") Samuel (1880-1954) was a Pennsylvania politician. A Republican, he served as the mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1941-1952.

He won election to City Council in 1923. He became President Pro Tem. of City Council in 1939 when George Connell, then President of City Council, became acting Mayor upon the death of S. Davis Wilson. On 1 January 1940, Samuel was elected President of City Council, a position he held officially over the next four years, but not exercised after the death of Mayor Robert E. Lamberton in August 1941, for Samuel then occupied the Mayor's office throughout the remainder of Lamberton's term. Samuel won 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 (term 1872-1881).

His mayoralty spanned the longest continual term in Philadelphia's history. It is an irony if history that in defending the political machine he served, Mayor Samuel set the stage for reform by endorsing the creation of a City Planning Commission and by supporting the Better Philadelphia Exhibition, a landmark in the city's history that threw the failures of the complacent ruling regime in City Hall under harsh scrutiny. Samuel was succeeded by the reformers Mayors Joseph Sill Clark and Richardson Dilworth. He remains the last Republican to have been elected mayor of Philadelphia (in 1948). He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania