Eugenio Celedón
Eugenio Celedón Silva (Santiago, 1 January 1926 – 19 March 2018) was a Chilean engineer, academic, researcher, businessperson, trade association leader and Christian Democratic politician.
He served as a cabinet minister —in the portfolio of Public Works and Transport— during the final part of the administration of president Eduardo Frei Montalva.
Family and education
He completed his primary and secondary education at the Deutsche Schule Santiago, and then studied at the University of Chile, graduating as a civil engineer with a specialization in hydraulics in 1950.
He married Carmen Cariola Feuereisen, with whom he had ten children: María Eliana, Eugenio, Ximena, María Carolina, Ricardo, Patricia, Mónica, Gerardo, Luz María and Paula.
Public life
Before graduating, he taught various subjects at several schools and programs.
In the late 1950s he served as chief engineer of the Groundwater Department of the state Production Development Corporation (CORFO). He was also an academic councillor on the University Council of the University of Chile.
In late 1969, President Eduardo Frei Montalva appointed him Minister of Public Works and Transport, a post he held until the end of the administration. During that period he received, among other distinctions, Argentina’s Order of May in the grade of Grand Cross.
In the early 1970s he was a municipal councillor (regidor) for the commune of El Tabo.
Later, in 1990, he was appointed Superintendent of Sanitary Services by President Patricio Aylwin, where he oversaw the foundational stage of the new regulator. He left the office in 1996 during the government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who had ratified him in March 1994.
He also worked as a consultant, trade association leader and business executive.