Don[1] Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 – October 21, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts.

[2][4] In Puerto Rico, Antonio Ferré met and married María Aguayo Casals, a cousin of both Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (whose mother was a Puerto Rico-born Catalan musician) and Carmelita Defilló Sanz (wife to Dominican politician and historian Manuel Arturo Peña Batlle and mother of Dominican paintist Fernando Peña Defilló).

[2] Antonio and María had four sons, Luis, José, Carlos and Hermán Ferré, and two daughters, Rosario and Isolina, this latter would become a nun of international prominence.

[6] Upon his return to Puerto Rico, Ferré helped transform his father's company into a successful business from which he earned a fortune.

His son Maurice expanded a successful business there, selling bagged pre-mixed cement and sand under the name Mezcla Lista.

In 1948, Puerto Ricans were allowed to elect their governor; previously the position was filled by appointment by the United States president.

In 1951, a referendum was held to decide whether to approve or not the option granted by the United States Congress to draft Puerto Rico's first constitution.

In the following general election in 1968, Ferré ran for Governor and defeated Luis Negrón López, the candidate of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) by a slight margin.

During his governorship, he paid special attention to youth affairs and bringing young Puerto Ricans into public service.

He successfully had the Puerto Rico Constitution amended to lower the voting age to 18, strongly supported the New Progressive Party Youth organization as party president, and appointed then-young statehooders such as Antonio Quiñones Calderón and Francisco "Pompi" González to high-level administration jobs, campaigned for a 26-year-old at large House candidate, nominated a future Senate President and Secretary of State, teenager Kenneth McClintock as Puerto Rico delegate to the 1971 White House Conference on Youth, and strengthened college scholarship programs.

Between 1989 and 1991, Ferré served with former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, former representative Benny Frankie Cerezo, PNP leader Kenneth McClintock and former congressional staffer David Gerken as the New Progressive Party's negotiating team while Congress considered Puerto Rico political status legislation introduced by Senator J. Bennett Johnston.

Among other things, Ferré is credited with having rescued from oblivion the painting Flaming June by the Victorian painter Frederic Lord Leighton – purchasing it in 1963, when it was considered "too old fashioned" and getting it prominently displayed at the Museo of Arte de Ponce.

As a sportsman, Ferré practiced fencing, and is honored annually with the "Campeonato Nacional de Esgrima" in Puerto Rico.

His philanthropic deeds and defense for democracy earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President George H. W. Bush on November 18, 1991.