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Samuel Stroum

Jewish American businessman and philanthropist (1921-2001)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ98549551 ↗
Source-derived summary

Samuel N. Stroum (April 14, 1921 – March 9, 2001) was a Jewish-American businessman and philanthropist. He was called the "godfather of Seattle giving".

Stroum was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and married Althea (1922–2011) in 1942. Stroum founded ALMAC-Stroum Electronics in 1960 and later purchased Schuck's Auto Supply. In 1983, he retired to devote his time to philanthropy.

Stroum had a close relationship with the University of Washington. He and his wife established a lecture series in Jewish Studies in 1975, and later endowed a Chair in Jewish Studies. Stroum served on the Board of Regents from 1985 to 1998. He was also awarded honorary doctorates from Brandeis University, Seattle University, and Whitworth College.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Samuel Stroum” is jewish American businessman and philanthropist (1921-2001). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Samuel, Stroum and Jewish, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 2001, 1922, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1921-04-14. For this dossier, Samuel, Stroum and Jewish is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “jewish American businessman and philanthropist (1921-2001)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q98549551. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 2001, 1922 and 2011.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Samuel Stroum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.