Guillermo Irizarry Rubio was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico on April 12, 1916. The sixth child of a printer, he started working early in his father's business. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez in May, 1939 with a degree in Agronomy. At the time Puerto Rico was still undergoing significant economic hardship, the result of Hurricane San Felipe in 1928. In June 1939, at the request of Carlos Esteva, then Director of the Tobacco Institute, he had his first official job at an experimental station that had been recently established in Puerto Rico. Employment opportunities were still difficult, but some jobs were by then being created on the island as a result of Luis Muñoz Marín's initiative for Puerto Rico, which joined in the type of social programs that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had implemented in the United States.
Military Service and Education
Guillermo Irizarry served in the United States Army during World War II, Irizarry had a 1A classification, which meant under the military categories, that he could be called for active military service immediately. By 1943, Irizarry had officially joined the United States military where he continued serving until July, 1946. Served as Technician fifth grade. After his military service Irizarry offered guidance in the Veterans Administration, but a fortunate meeting with the then Secretary of Business and Agriculture, Ramón Colón Torres, leads to him completing a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana in 1950 and rejoining the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico that same year. On behalf of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company, he participated in the process that lead Harold Toppel and brother George Toppel to establish the first supermarket in Puerto Rico, Pueblo.
Career
In 1960 he was named the Director of the Office of Management and Budget of the Government of Puerto Rico, where he continued to serve past the end of the term of then Governor Muñoz on January 2, 1965, and until December, 1966 when then Governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella nominated him to become Secretary of State of Puerto Rico. It was as Secretary of State of Puerto Rico that he represented the People of Puerto Rico at Martin Luther King's wake. He served as Secretary of State, and provided needed stability to the government of Puerto Rico, during one of Puerto Rico's most tumultuous times. During his term, Gov. Sánchez Vilella's relationship with his predecessor and first elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, deteriorated almost as rapidly as the governor's marriage to the First Lady, which ended in the first divorce of a sitting governor and remarriage to the governor's chief of staff. Politically, the governor abandoned the party that elected him, the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, and joined a newly founded party, the People's Party, which nominated him for an unsuccessful reelection bid. In November of that year, the PDP suffered its first defeat with the election of the New Progressive Party's Luis A. Ferré. As a result, Secretary Irizarry presided over the first transition between elected governors of different parties. From 1973 to 1977, during the administration of Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, Irizarry served again the People of Puerto Rico as a member of the Higher Education Counsel. Within the education arena he also served as the first President of the General Education Counsel from 1985 until 1990.
