Luis A. Ferré

Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 – October 21, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts.

Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was born in the southern city of Ponce, Puerto Rico on February 17, 1904.

Ferré's grandfather Maurice Ferré Perotín was a French engineer who was involved in the construction of the Panama Canal before settling in Cuba.

Ferré's father, Antonio Ferré Bagayado or "Bacallao", was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up there.

As a young man he immigrated to Puerto Rico, where he founded the company Puerto Rico Iron Works, in Barrio Playa de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico, Antonio Ferré met and married María Aguayo Casals, a cousin of both Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (whose mother was a Puerto Rico-born Catalan musician) and Carmelita Defilló Sanz (wife to Dominican politician and historian Manuel Arturo Peña Batlle and mother of Dominican paintist Fernando Peña Defilló).

Antonio and María had four sons, Luis, José, Carlos and Hermán Ferré, and two daughters, Rosario and Isolina, this latter would become a nun of international prominence.

Ferré studied mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1924 and master's degree in 1925, and music at the New England Conservatory of Music.

During this time while living in Boston, Ferré developed an admiration for the "American way of democracy".

Upon his return to Puerto Rico, Ferré helped transform his father's company into a successful business from which he earned a fortune.

Ferré became active in politics in the 1940s.

He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Ponce in 1940 and Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in 1948.

In 1948, he acquired El Día, a fledgling newspaper that was later renamed El Nuevo Día, becoming the newspaper with the largest circulation in Puerto Rico at the time.

In 1948, Puerto Ricans were allowed to elect their governor; previously the position was filled by appointment by the United States president.

Luis Muñoz Marín was elected governor of Puerto Rico.

A movement began which aimed to adopt a commonwealth relationship with the United States of America.

In the 1950s, Ferré's Empresas Ferré (Ferre Enterprises) acquired Puerto Rico Cement and Ponce Cement, which capitalized on the economic boom which Puerto Rico enjoyed based on the ambitious industrialization projects undertaken in association with the Operation Bootstrap.

Ferré's brother, José, had moved to Miami with his family.

His son Maurice expanded a successful business there, selling bagged pre-mixed cement and sand under the name Mezcla Lista.

Maurice Ferré was elected Mayor of Miami.

In 1951, a referendum was held to decide whether to approve or not the option granted by the United States Congress to draft Puerto Rico's first constitution.

Ferré abstained from participating in the process; the pro-statehood party to which he belonged favored the 1951 referendum.

He believed that the process would mean "an acceptance of a colony and condemn the people to a perpetual condition of second class citizenship".

Ferré later participated in the constitutional assembly created by the referendum, which drafted the constitution.

In 1952 the Constitution of Puerto Rico was adopted, renaming the body politic of the territory of Puerto Rico as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Ferré was elected as a member of the Constitutional Assembly.

That same year Ferré was elected representative in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives.

He ran under the Republican Statehood Party ("Partido Estadista Republicano) and officially assumed his duties as representative on January 11, 1953.

On July 23, 1967, a plebiscite was held to decide if the people of Puerto Rico desired to become an independent nation, a state of the United States of America, or continue the commonwealth relation established in 1952.

The majority of Puerto Ricans opted for the Commonwealth option (see Puerto Rican status referendums).

Disagreement within the then pro-statehood party headed by Miguel A. García Méndez led Ferré and others to found the New Progressive Party (a.k.a., PNP).

In the following general election in 1968, Ferré ran for Governor and defeated Luis Negrón López, the candidate of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) by a slight margin.

The ruling party had split with the creation of the People's Party, which ran incumbent PDP-elected Governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella as its gubernatorial candidate, ending Luis Muñoz Marín's PPD's hold on the governor's seat, which had lasted 20 years.

During Ferré's administration, Puerto Rico was in an economic boom at 7% GDP growth and the unemployment at 10%.

His work as governor of Puerto Rico included defending the federal minimum wage and granting workers a Christmas bonus.

He visited Puerto Rican troops in Vietnam.

He was the governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973.

He was the founder of the New Progressive Party, which advocates for Puerto Rico to become a state of the United States of America.

He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1970, his first wife, Lorencita, died at La Fortaleza after being bed-ridden for years.