Florence Melton

Before her death, she served as a consultant for Product Development and Design. Her son, author and speaker Gordon Zacks, served as the CEO of the company. He died on Feb. 1, 2014. Another son, Barry Zacks, founded the Max & Erma's restaurant chain in 1972, taking it public. He died in 1990.

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. Melton is a member of the Commission on Jewish Education in North America.

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).

In 1968, Melton married industrialist and philanthropist Samuel M. Melton. Samuel Melton endowed the Melton Research Center at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Melton Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where Melton additional become an active partner to her husband’s philanthropic projects. [3] Melton was very passionate about creating a program of study to help adults attain Jewish Literacy. Many were very skeptical of the need for teaching adults about Jewish culture. Concerns about the amount of adults that were interested in Jewish study or would even want to view Jewish Study as serious as the program was outlined. Together, they created the "Florence Melton Adult Mini-School," a two-year, non-denominational program, which operates in over 70 North American communities, Australia and South Africa.

Melton co-founded the R.G. Barry Corporation in 1946 with Zacks. While investigating foam latex, a material invented as a helmet liner for World War II tank crewmen, as a possible material for her patented women's shoulder pad, she discovered that she could use the material to line slippers. This foam latex was then made into slippers, which were made of washable terrycloth or velour that came in a variety of colors. Each slipper was different, some had a slightly raised heel, some have backs, some have straps, open toes and some have tassels. The common denominator was that they all have the same foam-rubber insoles that was at least half an inch thick. 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.

Florence Zacks Melton (November 6, 1911 – February 8, 2007) was an American inventor known for innovating the foam-soled and washable slipper.