Samuel Ely Eliot, the cousin of prolific poet T.S. Eliot, was a distinguished scholar and Pittsburgh social worker. A Rhodes scholar, Eliot was publicly educated in Portland Oregon, then continued on to receive degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, Oxford University, and Columbia University.
He began his career as the Secretary of the Committee on the Prevention of Blindness at the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1924 he assumed the post of Executive Director of Woods Run Settlement of Pittsburgh, where he later served on the Board of Managers. He also worked as an organizer at the Manchester Educational Center. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Pittsburgh chapter of Federal Union, Inc., and served as the president of Riverview Park Commission.
He and his wife, Elsa van Manderscheid Eliot, worked with the American Friends Service Committee in the war relief of Serbia. Elsa founded the annual concerts of "United We Sing," an annual Christmas carol festival organized by the couple that recognized the value of cultural sharing and diversity.
Eliot passed away on January 19, 1976.
The Eliot Fund arises out of a $500 grant donation made to the Eliots by the James and Rachel Levinson Foundation as a Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The fund receives gifts from other donors and is applied to the Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Mellon University) for the support of "United We Sing."
Type of Fund
- Designated