Alejandro Garretón Silva (26 August 1900 – 30 July 1980) was a Chilean physician and academic. He served as a Minister of State in the portfolio of Public Education during the administration of President Jorge Alessandri from 1963 to 1964.
Biography
Garretón was the son of Federico Garretón Silva and Clara Rosa Silva, and a member of the Garretón family. He studied at the Colegio San Pedro Nolasco in Santiago and later at the University of Chile, where he qualified as a medical doctor in 1923.
He worked at the José Joaquín Aguirre Hospital, where he served as dean. He also held senior responsibilities at the San Francisco de Borja Hospital, also in Santiago.
He served as president of the Medical Society of Santiago from 1934 to 1936, and eight years later published a book entitled Eulogy of the Medical Society of Santiago: 1869 – 6 September 1944.
Earlier, in 1941, he authored and published the book Digitalis: A Clinical and Technical Study of Treatment and Results as a contribution to medicine, and later, in 1959, another work with the same purpose entitled The Concept of Disease. Over the course of his life, he also published other works, including The Medical Work of Gregorio Marañón.
He was a member of the Club de la Unión and of Rotary International, eventually being appointed South American director of the latter.
Among the honors he received during his lifetime was one of the most important public decorations awarded by the French Government since the era of Napoleon I to the present day: appointment as a Knight of the Legion of Honour. This distinction was conferred on him by the then President of France, Charles de Gaulle, during his visit to Chile.
He also pursued a long academic career, becoming a full professor of medicine at the University of Chile in 1943 and dean of the faculty of that institution between 1952 and 1958.
He was appointed Minister of Education in 1963 by President Jorge Alessandri, a position he held until the end of that administration one year later.
In 1973, he was named professor emeritus of the University of Chile.
He was the founder and director of the Instituto de Chile, which later honored him with the book Alejandro Garretón Silva: The Man, the Physician, the Academic.