Benítez, Jaime, 1908-2001
Jaime Benítez Rexach (October 29, 1908 – May 30, 2001) was a Puerto Rican author, academic and politician. He was the longest serving chancellor and the first president of the University of Puerto Rico before serving one term as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.
Born on Vieques, a small island about twenty miles off the shore of mainland Puerto Rico, he was raised in San Juan after his parents' deaths. In 1926 Benítez left the island to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he received an LL.B. degree in 1930 and an LL.M. in 1931. That same year he passed the District of Columbia bar examination and returned to Puerto Rico. He later earned an M.A. at the University of Chicago in 1938. In 1931 Benítez began a career in education at the University of Puerto Rico that spanned four decades: he was associate professor of social and political sciences (1931–1942), chancellor of its main campus in Río Piedras (1942–1966) for nearly 30 years. Described by a contemporary as “vivid, voluble, ardent for his country’s good and obviously talented,” Benítez rebuilt the school’s curriculum from the bottom up, implementing far-reaching reforms regarding the teaching of Puerto Rico’s cultural heritage. Enrollment surged from 5,000 to roughly 40,000 students under his leadership.
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