Juan Gómez Millas

Hi, today I’ll talk to you about the greatest Chilean of all times; Juan Gómez Millas.

Mr. Juanito was a very important academic for Chilean education. He was born in July of 1900, in the city of Santiago and died in 1987, if you know subtract you know he died 87 years old. He was a Masonic man.

Juanito was a great pedagogue and a good teacher; also he was minister of education under the government of Carlos Ibáñez Del Campo and Eduardo Frei Montalva.  But the most important job of Gómez Millas was to have been rector of Universidad de Chile between 1953 – 1963.

JGM was a very relevant man for history of education in Chile, overcoat for university level.  His contribution is very important, he established Editorial Universitaria at his period like rector of U. Chile.

He studied at Sn. Ignacio School in Santiago and later he studied history in Instituto pedagógico and he graduated in 1923. Two year later he was contracted as teacher in the same place that he studied. In 1947 he was elected as dean of Facultad de educación y letras. Then in 1952 Carlos Ibáñez Del Campo called Juanito for to be minister of education, and Juanito accepted this challenge, but he worked here just one year, because in 1953 he was elected as rector of U. Chile. During his period as rector the university began an expansion process, opening campus out of Santiago, like Valparaíso, in this way the university was national and not only for the capital of Chile.

He was rector until 1963; later he was designated minister of education again, this time for Frei Montalva. He was minister until 1968, during his period there were a lot of reforms.      

He died in 1987 in Maitencillo, near to Valparaíso.

I would like ask to Mr. Juanito what would he think about Chilean education.

And I want tell you that our campus Juan Gómez Millas is in his honor.