Modesto Collados

Modesto Collados Núñez (13 December 1916 – 20 May 2012) was a Chilean civil engineer, academic, trade association leader, writer and politician.

He served as cabinet minister during the government of president Eduardo Frei Montalva, and later under the military dictatorship of general Augusto Pinochet.

Family and education He was born in Argentina on 13 December 1916, the son of Modesto Collados and Elvira Núñez. He moved to Chile at the age of four.

He completed his primary studies at the Manuel Tomás Albornoz School in Constitución, and secondary studies at the Liceo de Hombres in Talca. He later studied at the University of Chile, graduating as a civil engineer in 1941 with the thesis División aurea. During his university years he stood out as a student leader.

After six years in the public sector he moved to the private sector, forming a company that built more than a million square meters, mainly in housing. He also began an academic career at his alma mater.

In the late 1980s he chaired the High Advisory Council for the presidential candidacy of Hernán Büchi.

He received the National Prize of the Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile (1996), the Infrastructure Prize (2005), and gold medals from the Instituto de Ingenieros de Chile, the CChC, and the Inter-American Construction Federation. He was also awarded the Rector's Medal of the Universidad Arturo Prat.

He died on 20 May 2012 at the age of 95.

Written works Vigencia y dolencia de la cultura occidental (1986). Reflexiones sobre Rusia (1992). Popper y Hayek en su tinta (1996).