Governor Carlos G. Camacho Papers

Abstract

Carlos Garcia Camacho was born on November 16, 1924 in Agana, the son of Felix Martinez Camacho and Antonia Garcia Camacho. He attended the Guam Institute and the Guam Evening High School before his studies were interrupted by the Japanese Invasion in 1941. Camacho was forced to work as a laborer during the Japanese Occupation. Following the American liberation of the island in 1944 he went to work for the Provisional Military Government and the Naval Government. Two years later he left the island to further his education. He attended Aquinas College, Grand Rapids Michigan from 1946 to 1949 and continued his education at Marquette University from which he earned a degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery.

Returning to Guam, Camacho joined the staff of the Guam Memorial Hospital, and later the staff of the Catholic Medical Center which opened in 1955. The next year he was inducted into the U.S. Army where he served for two years in the Dental Corps. He also served as a Captain in the Dental Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve. Camacho ran for and was elected to the 8th Guam Legislature (1964-1966) as a member of the Territorial Party. Serving as a chairman of the Committee on Public Health and Welfare, Camacho was also a member of the Committee on Rules, the Committee on Education and Labor, the Committee on Municipal Affairs and the Committee on Economic Development.

The Territorial Party failed to win a single seat in the 9th Guam Legislature. Following this defeat, Camacho and other Party leaders formed the Republican Party of Guam. In 1968, Camacho was the Chairman of the Guam delegation to the GOP convention in Miami. The following year President Richard Nixon appointed him as the successor to the Democratic Governor Manuel Guerrero. He assumed the office of Governor of Guam on July 1, 1969. One of the highlights of his eighteen month term as an appointed Governor was a trip to visit Guamanian soldiers in Vietnam during Christmas of 1969, the first of many trips he would make as Governor.

In 1970 he successfully ran for the governorship with Kurt Moylan as his running mate. Camacho thus became the last appointed Governor and the first elected Governor of Guam. His administration was noted for the development of the island, especially air transportation and tourism, public works projects such as roads and bridges and industrial parks. He strongly supported public health programs. Following his defeat in a hotly contested election in 1974 he devoted his time to his dental practice. Carlos Camacho died on December 6, 1979.