Guido José Mario Di Tella was born in Buenos Aires, 1931. His father, Torcuato di Tella, was an Italian Argentine immigrant who had become a prominent local industrialist, producing industrial machinery and home appliances through the Siam di Tella establishment. Guido lost his father at age 17, and per his wishes, the young man pursued an engineering degree at the University of Buenos Aires with the intention of later managing the family industrial firm. He also took an interest in politics, becoming a co-founder of the Christian Democratic Party of Argentina in 1954. Graduating in 1955, he was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a PhD in Economics in 1959. He married Nelly Ruvira, and they had five children. Returning to Argentina he co-founded -with his older brother Torcuato- the Torcuato di Tella Institute, an educational and cultural foundation; by then, Guido Di Tella had become a vocal Peronist. Such a progression was unusual among young Argentines of a privileged background; Di Tella, however, came to believe that class-driven prejudices against the mostly working-class Peronists had to be set aside if Argentina was once again, in his words, to become a "serious country." Teaching at his alma mater and at the Argentine Catholic University, he also helped spur the Di Tella Institute into becoming a leading sponsor of the local vanguard movement in the arts during the 1960s. His ongoing support of Perón led to his brief expulsion from Argentina in the early 1970s, when he was made a visiting fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford University. Di Tella had been among Perón's entourage on the aging leader's brief, November 1972 visit that had been authorized ahead of the 1973 general elections. Following Perón's July 1974 death, his widow and successor Isabel Perón named him Deputy Economy Minister, a post he held until the March 1976 coup against her chaotic presidency. Di Tella then spent many years of exile in Oxford, where he wrote a book about his experiences. Returning to Argentina in 1989, he never severed his links with the city and university, keeping a house there and visiting every spring.
Di Tella retired from public service with the change of administrations in December 1999, on which occasion he was made an honorary fellow of St. Antony's. He visited the Falkland Islands as an ordinary citizen, in October 2000, and was warmly received. Illness forced Di Tella to retire from politics, however, and 2001 was marked by an investigation into his possible role in the illegal, Menem-era sale of arms to Croatia and Ecuador ; he maintained his innocence, and was eventually spared further trial because of his ill health. Secluded in his estancia outside Navarro, Buenos Aires, Di Tella suffered a stroke on New Year's Eve, 2001, dying at age 70. He was survived by his widow, Nelly, and his five children.
