Víctor Manuel Pons Núñez (April 5, 1935 – November 11, 1999) served as the 12th

chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico () is the Chief Justice, presiding officer of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. The post of chief justice was created by Article V of Constitution of Puerto Rico, Article V of the Constitution ...

. He previously had served as

Secretary of State of Puerto Rico The secretary of state of Puerto Rico () leads all efforts promoting the cultural, political, and economical relations between Puerto Rico and jurisdictions within the United States or foreign countries. It was created by Article IV of the Con ...

from 1973 until 1974. Born in

Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

, Pons earned a juris doctor in 1959 from the

University of Puerto Rico School of Law The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is the law school of the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System and the only public law school in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1913 at ...

. Started private law practice in 1959. He was appointed Chief Justice by Governor

Rafael Hernández Colón Rafael Hernández Colón (October 24, 1936 – May 2, 2019) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1977 and 1985 to 1993 for a total of three terms. An experienced politician, Hernández held the ...

in 1985, and he headed the high court until his retirement in 1992. A prominent private-sector attorney, Pons was Hernández Colón's electoral campaign manager before holding public office. He died on November 11, 1999, at 64 years of age.

Sources

*La Justicia en sus Manos, by Luis Rafael Rivera, 2007,

References

, - 1935 births 1999 deaths Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico People from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Secretaries of state of Puerto Rico 20th-century American judges {{US-state-judge-stub