Florence Zacks Melton was an American inventor known for innovating the foam-soled and washable slipper.

Early life

Melton grew up in Philadelphia in an extremely poor family. She worked at a local Woolworth's

F. W. Woolworth Company

The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...

 from age 13 in order to support her family. She married her first husband, Aaron Zacks, when she was 19, and subsequently moved to Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, where he worked as a merchandiser for a department store.

Career

Melton served on the Board of United Way (then the Red Feather Agency) and with the Red Cross Nutrition Corps. In the 1970s, she became the first woman to serve on the board of the Huntington National Bank and was a founding member of CAJE (the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education).

Melton co-founded the R.G. Barry Corporation in 1946 with Zacks. While investigating foam latex as a possible material for her patented women's shoulder pad, she discovered that she could use the material to line slippers. Marketed first as Angel Treads and later as Dearfoams, Melton's slippers were immediately successful. More than 1 billion slippers have been sold, according to the company.

Before her death, she served as a consultant for Product Development and Design. Her son, author and speaker Gordon Zacks

Gordon Zacks

- In Business :His mother, Florence Melton, was an inventor and with Gordon's father started the R. G. Barry Corporation: the world's largest supplier of comfort footwear. Gordon Zacks has served as Chairman of the Board of R. G. Barry since 1979. He also served as President and Chief Executive...

, serves as the CEO of the company. Another son, Barry Zacks, founded the Max & Erma's

Max & Erma's

Max & Erma's is a casual dining restaurant chain based in Columbus, Ohio. It operates throughout parts of the Eastern and Midwestern United States, and was founded in 1972 by Todd Barnum and Barry Zacks. The two businessmen purchased a local tavern in Columbus's German Village which had been...

 restaurant chain in 1972, taking it public. He died in 1990.

In 1968, Melton married industrialist and philanthropist Samuel M. Melton. Together, they created the "Florence Melton Adult Mini-School

Alternative school

Alternative school is the name used in some parts of the world to describe an institution which provides part of alternative education. It is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional...

," a two-year, non-denominational program, which operates in over 70 North American communities and Australia.

In the mid 1980s Melton initiated the "Discovery" program, which attempts to connect youths to their family ancestry, community, different denominations in Judaism, and to Israel. The program involves extensive field trips and culminates in a tour to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Melton was the founder of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a pluralistic adult learning program to enable adults to gain Jewish literacy through a broad and deep curriculum created by scholars and educators at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Melton schools all over the globe from Sydney, Australia to Portland, Oregon continue the legacy.