Carlos Sáenz Herrera

Carlos Sáenz Herrera
Second Vice President of Costa Rica
In office
8 May 1962 – 8 May 1966
Serving with Raúl Blanco Cervantes
PresidentFrancisco Orlich Bolmarcich
Preceded byJosé Joaquín Peralta Esquivel
Succeeded byVirgilio Calvo Sánchez
Director of the National Children's Hospital
In office
24 May 1964 – 30 September 1971
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byÉdgar Mohs Villalta
Minister of Public Health
In office
8 November 1949 – 8 August 1951
PresidentOtilio Ulate Blanco
Preceded byRaúl Blanco Cervantes
Succeeded byJosé Cabezas Duffner
Personal details
BornCarlos Agustín Sáenz Herrera
(1910-09-01)1 September 1910
Died7 November 1980(1980-11-07) (aged 70)
PartyPLN
Spouse
Ángela Carbonell Massenet
​
​
(m. 1958)​
EducationUniversité libre de Bruxelles (MBBS)
Occupation
  • Physician
  • pediatrician
  • politician
  • professor

Carlos Agustín Sáenz Herrera (1 September 1910 – 7 November 1980) was a Costa Rican physician, pediatrician, and politician who served as Second Vice President of Costa Rica from 1962 to 1966. A member of the National Liberation Party, he was a pioneer of pediatrics in Costa Rica and served as the founding director of the National Children's Hospital from 1964 to 1971.

His parents were José Carlos Sáenz Esquivel and Úrsula Celina Herrera and Paut. He married his first wife in Cartago, Costa Rica, on 4 December 1937. Her name was María Virginia Pacheco Gutiérrez, daughter of José Joaquín Pacheco Cooper and Carlota Gutiérrez Urtecho. His second wife, married on 1 September 1958, was Ángela Carbonell Massenet. She was the daughter of Francisco of Take Carbonell I Reverter and Juana Bautista Massenet Pozo.

His primary studies were in the School Juan Rafael Dwells and secondary the Liceo of Costa Rica in Saint José where obtained his baccalaureate. When he finished his secondary studies he traveled to Belgium (1928), where graduated of doctor in Medicine in the Free University of Brussels (1934). Later he specialized in pediatrics in the University of Strasbourg, and returned to Costa Rica in 1935.

Professional activity

He was an early pediatrician of Costa Rica. For many years he served as the chairman of the Section of Pediatrics at the Hospital San Juan of God, and his efforts led to the foundation of the National Children's Hospital, inaugurated in 1964, that today carries his name.[1]

Public office

He served as minister of health from 1949 to 1951 and Vice President of Costa Rica from 1962 to 1966.[2] He served as interim President in 1963 and 1965, in replacement of the president Francisco José Orlich Bolmarcich. Also, he was a leader in Social Insurance, professor and dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Costa Rica and president of the School of Doctors and Surgeons.

The government of Belgium honored him in 1963 with the Order of the Crown.

Private activities

He was an important criador of livestock of milk in his fincas The Jaúles, Bretaña and The Retreat, and obtained important prizes in exhibitions national and international agriculture people.

He was highly respected in his country, with a reputation of generosity and delivery to his patients.

Demise

He died in San José, Costa Rica, on 7 November 1980. The Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica declared it benemérito of the Homeland in 1980.

His son, Alberto Sáenz Pacheco, is also an eminent doctor and has occupied a lead role in social insurance.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Hospital Nacional de Niños, "Dr. Carlos Sáenz Herrera"". Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Historia Partido Liberación Nacional". Liberacionista.net (in Spanish). 16 April 2018.

References

  • Bonilla, H. H., The presidents, Saint José, National Printing, 1to. ed., 1979, vol. II, pp. 620–621.