Miguel Aylwin
Miguel Antonio Aylwin Gajardo (29 April 1889 – 2 July 1976) was a Chilean lawyer and judge who served as president of the Supreme Court from 1957 to 1960.
He was the father of Patricio Aylwin, who served as President of Chile from 1990 to 1994, as well as lawyer and politician Andrés Aylwin and comptroller general Arturo Aylwin.
Early life and education
Aylwin was born in San Javier, the son of Ricardo Aylwin Fernández, a civil registrar, and Domitila Gajardo Valenzuela. He was one of fourteen children. His parents died while he was still a child, after which he was raised partly by his maternal grandparents in Putú, near Constitución.
He attended the Escuela Normal de Preceptores José Abelardo Núñez in Santiago and qualified as a teacher in 1906. He subsequently studied at the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile, qualifying as a history and geography teacher in 1909. He taught at the Liceo de Aplicación and the Military School of Chile while undertaking legal studies.
Aylwin qualified as a lawyer in 1915 after completing a thesis entitled La ley de instrucción secundaria y superior. He subsequently moved to Valparaíso, where he practised law and taught procedural and administrative law.
He married Laura Azócar Álvarez. Their five children were Patricio, Arturo, Andrés, Tomás and Carmen Aylwin.
Judicial career
After suffering from a serious pulmonary illness, Aylwin withdrew from several of his earlier public activities and concentrated on a judicial career. He entered the Chilean judiciary in 1924 as a court reporter at the Court of Appeals of Valparaíso.
In 1927, he was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Valdivia, and two years later joined the Court of Appeals of Santiago. He subsequently became a justice of the Supreme Court of Chile.
Aylwin reached the presidency of the Supreme Court in 1957. He served for three years, during the governments of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo and Jorge Alessandri, and left the presidency in 1960, when he was succeeded by Rafael Fontecilla.
Aylwin died on 2 July 1976.