Our Founders
Frances Lomas Feldman (1912-2008)
Dr. Lomas Feldman was a professor at the University of Southern California. Her research and writings examined the psychological, social, and economic meanings of money and work in American families. A highlight of her academic work includes a multi-year, three-volume study in the 1970s for the American Cancer Society. Her areas of teaching focused on social welfare, including its history, social welfare policy, and administration.
After her retirement she turned her attention on the history of social welfare in Los Angeles. In 2004 she published her book, “Human Services in the City of Angels”. This one-of-a-kind book includes examples of the many reports and photos documenting social welfare efforts spanning 100 years and tells the story of social work’s role in these efforts.
She and USC librarian Ruth Britton collected thousands of documents and photos from L.A.’s social welfare history resulting in CSWA’s 177 archival collections.
George Nickel (1906-1990)
Armed with master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in both economics and social work, George Nickel began his social work career during the Great Depression with unemployed, homeless single men and with couples entering Rancho Los Amigos, the Los Angeles County Poor Farm. In 1932, he was invited to become director of the Kern County Welfare Program to address the relief of needy and distressed people. Over the opposition of many in that county, he successfully developed innovative projects that both relieved the stress on individuals and added economic and social benefits to the larger community experiencing the great influx of migrants from the Dust Bowl.
Al Feldman (1909-1975)
Al Feldman was originally trained as a research chemist but soon realized that human beings interested him more than test tubes. In 1933, he worked as a caseworker for the newly created California State Relief Administration. He never left the field of social work and carried into it the hard-science research methodology in which he had been trained. After progressing rapidly from caseworker to supervisor and then to positions in research and administration in the CSRA, he joined the staff of the Los Angeles Welfare Planning Council, a private agency. Except for World War II military service and a two-and-a-half year leave to study for his doctorate, he remained there until 1960.
Ruth Britton (1923-2011)
Britton was the head of USC’s social work library for more than two decades. She retired in 2000 after more than 43 years of service to the university. Together with Dr. Frances Lomas Feldman, Brittan was instrumental in obtaining and cataloguing the vast collection of documents held in the CSWA archival collection An Oklahoma native, Britton graduated from the University of Oklahoma with an associate’s degree in social work and from the University of Illinois with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in library science.
