Simón Benítez Padilla

Simón Benítez Padilla was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on 13 January 1890. He died in the same city on 14 March 1976. His career brought together technical work in public infrastructure, research into the island’s territory and participation in scientific institutions. At El Museo Canario he served two terms as president and worked for many years as curator, while pursuing studies of history, geography and the use of Gran Canaria’s water resources.

His parents, Petra Padilla Quintero and Cándido Benítez González, were both from El Hierro. He attended the Colegio de San Agustín and studied advanced mathematics at the Escuela Local de Industrias. He also qualified as a senior teacher at Gran Canaria’s regional teacher training school. Through a competitive examination he entered the Escuela Central de Ayudantes de Obras Públicas, obtaining the professional training that enabled him to work in the Las Palmas public works administration. In 1915 he married Amalia Ayala y Espinosa in Valverde.

After working in the technical section of the Junta Administrativa de Obras Públicas, he became head of the Roads and Works section of Gran Canaria’s island council in 1927. He remained in that post until retiring in 1960. His technical career was connected with the study and construction of infrastructure on the island. His documented qualification was that of an ayudante de Obras Públicas, the professional designation under which he began his career in public works.

He joined the scientific society El Museo Canario in November 1916 and served on its governing boards from 1923. He was president from 1933 to 1936 and again from 1947 to 1951. In the latter year he became the museum’s curator, a responsibility he retained until 1970. The society elected him an honorary member in 1960 and devoted the two volumes of its journal for that year to him. He also belonged to the Instituto de Estudios Canarios, the Instituto de Estudios Hispánicos and the Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. In 1943 he became a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia.

In 1959 the island council published his Gran Canaria y sus obras hidráulicas: bases geográficas y realizaciones técnicas. The book examines the island’s history through its water resources and the ways they were used. His documentary interests also included introductions and the recovery of texts. He wrote Don Cirilo Moreno y sus tiempos as an introductory study for the 1947 edition of De los puertos de La Luz y de Las Palmas y otras historias. His contribution therefore connects professional knowledge of the territory with the preservation of collections and historical research.