Luis Antonio Morales Crespo was a Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican people

A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and Mayor of Ponce

Ponce, Puerto Rico

Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...

, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 from 1973 to 1976. He was also Senator for the District of Ponce from 1977 to 1980 and president of the Ponce Municipal Assembly from 1989 to 2004 He is recognized as a politician, sportsman, and sports broadcaster.

Radio personality

Before entering politics, Morales Crespo was a prominent local radio personality and broadcaster. He played for the Ponce Lions’ professional baseball team from 1947 to 1953 and is an exalted member of Ponce’s Sports Hall of Fame, cited at the Francisco Pancho Coimbre Museum

Museo Francisco Pancho Coimbre

The Museo Francisco "Pancho" Coímbre is a sports museum in Ponce, Puerto Rico.-History:The Francisco Pancho Coimbre Sports Museum was inaugurated on January 21, 1992...

.

Business endeavors

Starting in 1980 he became General Manager of WOLE-TV

WOLE-TV

WOLE-DT is a full-power television station licensed to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico transmitting over digital channel 12. The station has its studios in Aguadilla and its main offices are located in the Westernbank Building in downtown Mayagüez....

 Channel 12 Aguadilla-Mayagüez.

Mayoral works

The administration of mayor Morales Crespo was characterized mostly by the rebuilding of the infrastructure of the city. The most prominent public works during the administration of mayor Morales Crespo are the building of the New Farmers Market (Nueva Plaza del Mercado

Plaza del Mercado de Ponce

The Plaza del Mercado de Ponce, or, formally, Plaza del Mercado Isabel II is a historic marketplace building in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was inaugurated in 1863 by Ponce Mayor Don Luis de Quixano. The building was designed by famed engineer Timoteo Luberza...

, or Plaza de Mercado Juan Bigas) on Mayor street, the building of levee

Levee

A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...

 systems for Rio Portugues and Rio Bucana

Río Bucaná

Río Bucaná, is a river in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Rio Bucana has its origin in barrio Machuelo Arriba where it forms at an altitude of . It forms from the confluence of Rio Cerrillos and Rio Bayagan. It is also fed by Rio Portugues during its southernly run. Rio Bucana used to run...

, the modernization of the sewerage

Sewerage

Sewerage refers to the infrastructure that conveys sewage. It encompasses receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, screening chambers, etc. of the sanitary sewer...

 system in Barrio La Playa, and the building of the Municipal Public Works Operations Center in the El Tuque

El Tuque

El Tuque is a beach and family recreational and tourist complex in the Punta Cucharas sector of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was designed in the early 1960s by Luis Flores, an architect from Cayey, Puerto Rico. It is located on PR-2, Km 220.1, in the El Tuque sector of Barrio Canas in Ponce...

 sector of Barrio Canas.

Death and legacy

Morales Crespo died at Hospital Damas, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on 18 June 2011. Governor Luis Fortuno declared three days of mourning island-wide accompanied by the lowering of the U.S. and Puerto Rico flags at all public buildings and facilities in memory of Morales Crespo. Ponce Mayor Mayita Melendez also declared three days of mourning and ordered all municipal flags in public buildings at half staff. In Ponce there is a park at the Cerrillos Lake and Dam area named after him.

See also

• Ponce, Puerto Rico
  Ponce, Puerto Rico
  Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...
  
  
• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of mayors of Ponce, Puerto Rico