Maurice Antonio Ferré (June 23, 1935 – September 19, 2019) was an American politician who served six terms as the Mayor of Miami. Ferré was the first Puerto Rican-born United States mayor and the first Latino Mayor of Miami. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2010 elections for the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

seat for Florida vacated by Mel Martínez for the Democratic primary.

Early years

Ferré was born in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 16 ...

. He was the son of businessman José Ferré and nephew of governor of Puerto Rico Luis A. Ferré (1904–2003). Ferre's father José visited Miami, Florida in the 1920s and wondered why the city did not have any tall buildings. He then ventured into construction and real estate development in Miami. Ferré was born when José and his family returned to their hometown, Ponce in Puerto Rico. Ferré was a graduate of the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, ...

. Ferré served in the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopte ...

from 1967 to 1968. He served as mayor of Miami from 1973 to 1985. From 1993 to 1993, Ferré served in the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners and was Vice-Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners. He was active in national political campaigns, and was a member of several presidential advisory boards. Ferré also worked as a banker and business consultant, and held various research and teaching posts. On December 20, 1995, Francisco Ferré Malaussena, Mariana Gómez de Ferré, and Felipe Antonio Ferré Gómez, the son, daughter-in-law, and grandson of Ferré, died when

American Airlines Flight 965 American Airlines Flight 965 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. On December 20, 1995, the Boeing 757-200 flying this route (reg ...

crashed into a mountain in Colombia.The List of the 164 People on Flight 965
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' Ferré ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 1996, finishing in third against fellow Commissioners

Alex Penelas Alexander Penelas (born December 18, 1961) is an American attorney who is the former mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Education and personal life Penelas, an American of Cuban descent, attended St. Thomas University and graduated in 1981 ...

and Arthur Teele. Ferré won 20% and did not make it to the runoff. In November 2001, Ferré lost his bid to be reelected Mayor of Miami. Ferré attempted his second run for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2004; however, he won only 17.76% of the vote, and did not make the run-off.

Later years

Ferré was on a fellowship at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

and was writing a book about the contributions that Hispanics have made to American culture. Ferré was one of the driving forces behind the intermestic (an abbreviation of ''international'' and ''domestic'') dialogue, which attempts to seek consensus regarding Puerto Rico's political status problem from both an international and domestic vantage point. He spoke about this effort to deal with Puerto Rico's political status in an address to the

Puerto Rico Senate The Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Senado de Puerto Rico) is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control t ...

as keynote speaker during the Governors' Day special session on February 16, 2006. In October 2009, Ferré announced that he was running for the open

seat of

Mel Martinez Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to: Biology * Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL) * National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL People * Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (includin ...

. He finished in fourth place (last place) in the Democratic primary, with only 4.9% of the vote. Ferré is sometimes referred to as the "father of modern-day Miami." To pay tribute to him and his legacy, a park district in Miami, formerly called Museum Park, was named after him in early 2019. Ferré died in Miami on September 19, 2019, from spinal cancer. He was 84 years of age.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferre, Maurice 1935 births 2019 deaths American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Hispanic and Latino American mayors in Florida Mayors of Miami County commissioners in Florida Democratic Party members of the Florida House of Representatives Politicians from Ponce Puerto Rican people of Catalan descent University of Miami alumni Neurological disease deaths in Florida Deaths from cancer in Florida Deaths from spinal cancer

Early years

Later years

See also

References