He was one of the youngest of four sons and seven daughters of José de Azevedo Pacheco, Police Commissioner of Loulé, and his wife Maria do Carmo Pontes Bota.

He then entered the newly created Instituto Superior Técnico (IST: Higher Technical Institute – now part of the University of Lisbon) at the age of 17, living with Humberto.

Considered to be a brilliant student, a year later he was hired as an assistant at IST and in 1925 he was already a full professor, teaching the subject of general mathematics.

However, in that period he carried out a mission that would prove important in the history of Portugal, visiting António de Oliveira Salazar, then a professor in the University of Coimbra, to persuade him to return to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon to become minister of finance, a position he had held in 1926 for just five days before resigning when the conditions he proposed to control rampant overspending were refused.

[2] In July 1932 Pacheco was asked by Salazar to become the first minister of public works and communications, a position he held until January 1936, before returning to IST for two years.

[1][3][4][5][6] The social housing built while Pacheco was the minister is now considered by many to be an eyesore but at the time represented a major advancement in living conditions for poorer sections of the Portuguese population.

[2] Improvements to ports included not only Lisbon and Leixões, serving the second city of Porto, but also Viana do Castelo, Póvoa de Varzim, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Peniche, Setúbal, Vila Real de Santo António, Funchal in Madeira and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, This work was essential both to promote trade and fisheries and also to facilitate the development of the cement industry necessary to carry out all the other works he planned.

This gave him considerable powers to carry out compulsory purchases of rural land needed for urban development, making him very unpopular in some circles.

Opposition to these policies led to Salazar reluctantly sacking him in January 1936, but he was reinstated to the same ministerial post in May 1938 and from that time felt secure in his efforts to change the face of Portugal.

Among other innovations for which he has been credited are the Pousadas de Portugal, a chain of hotels in historic buildings, which was founded in 1942, and the establishment of the Road Transport Industry Association.

On the morning of 15 November 1943, Pacheco went to Vila Viçosa in the Alentejo region to review the work underway on a statue of King João IV.