Dr. Arturo Morales Carrión, as Gov. afael Hernández Colón eulogized him, "one of the principal figures" in the history of Puerto Rico. Born November 16, 1913 in Havana, Cuba, he died in June, 1989 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after having served under Gov. Luis Muñoz Marín

Luis Muñoz Marín

Don José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician. Regarded as the "father of modern Puerto Rico," he was the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Muñoz Marín was the son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, a renowned autonomist leader...

 as Under Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, under President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, as special assistant to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States

Organization of American States

The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

 and as president of the University of Puerto Rico

University of Puerto Rico

The University of Puerto Rico is the state university system of Puerto Rico. The system consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 64,511 students and 5,300 faculty members...

.

Early life

Born in Havana of Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 parents, he studied at the Vila Mayo High School, and graduated in 1931 from the University High School (UHS), the alma mater of many prominent Puerto Ricans, before obtaining a B. A. degree, majoring in History and Political Science from UPR in 1935. He obtained an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 1936 and, later in life, obtained his Ph.D. in History and Government from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1950. In 1948 he married Inés Arandes Rexach, with whom he had two sons, Arturo and Edgardo, and one daughter, Inés Morales Arandes.

Public life

In 1953, Gov. Muñoz and Secretary of State Roberto Sánchez Vilella

Roberto Sánchez Vilella

Roberto Sánchez Vilella was the second Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1965 to 1969. He was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico...

 appointed Morales Carrión as Under Secretary of State, the position currently held for ten of the past 19 years by José Rodríguez Suárez, and a post he held until 1961 for eight years, almost as long as the current incumbent. During that period, he spearheaded efforts to provide technical assistance to neighboring nations and promoting cultural exchanges.

In 1961, President Kennedy appointed Dr. Morales Carrión as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs until 1964, the position currently held by Arturo Valenzuela, and helped organize the Alliance for Progress

Alliance for Progress

The Alliance for Progress initiated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and South America.-Origin and goals:...

 led by a fellow Puerto Rican, Teodoro Moscoso

Teodoro Moscoso

Teodoro Moscoso Mora , was a Puerto Rican politician known as "the architect of "Operation Bootstrap".-Early years:...

.

From 1964 to 1969, he served as Special Assistant to the Secretary General of the OAS.

Back in Puerto Rico, in 1973, he was chosen as President of UPR, a post he held until 1977. At UPR, he had earlier been chairman of its History Department, founded decades ago by Dr. Pilar Barbosa

Pilar Barbosa

Dr. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario was an educator, historian and political activist.-Early years:Barbosa born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, was one of twelve children of Jose Celso Barbosa, also known as the "Father of the Puerto Rican Statehood Movement". Her father was a member of the Puerto Rican Senate...

. At UPR, and as its president, he created the Center for Historic Research. He also founded the Puerto Rico Foundation of the Humanities and served as its Executive Director until his death in 1989.

Throughout his life, he served as Visiting Professor at innumerable institutions of higher learning, including Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. Columbia University, George Washington University

George Washington University

The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

 and the University of Miami

University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

, as well as other universities in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Selected publications

Puerto Rico: a Political and Cultural History (in English)

History of the People of Puerto Rico (in Spanish)

Albores Históricos del Capitalismo en Puerto Rico, 1972 (in Spanish)