Simón Moret Gallart

Simón Moret Gallart (1853 - 1923) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1907 to 1914.

Moret Gallart was born in Ponce, in 1863. He was a descendant of a French immigrant by the same name (Moret Gallart) who settled in Puerto Rico in 1816. His parents were Clemente Moret and Francisca Gallart.

He was elected mayor of Ponce in 1906 and took the oath of office in 1907. He was a member of the Union of Puerto Rico Party and defeated Manuel V. Domenech of the Republican Party in a contested election. In 1911, Mayor Moret received from the Government of the United States of America a franchise for the City of Ponce to operate the Port of Ponce in perpetuity. The port of Ponce has been operated by the municipality since then. It is the only sea port in Puerto Rico owned and administered by a municipal body.

Mayor Moret Gallart (second from the right) walks with President Theodore Roosevelt (dressed in white) on Roosevelt's arrival in Ponce in 1906

Among his mayoral accomplishments are the construction of the Ponce Firefighters Mausoleum at Cementerio Civil de Ponce, which was completed on 2 Abril 1911. He also built the Port of Ponce following an ordinance approved by the Consejo Ejecutivo de Puerto Rico in 1911.

In 1920, Simón Moret Gallart married Matilde Perdomo Morales. Simón had five children, including three daughters and two sons. He died in 1923 and was buried at Cementerio Católico San Vicente de Paul.

In Ponce there is a public school named after him, Elementary School Simón Moret Gallart, located at Carr 504, Km. 0.8, in barrio Portugues. The school ceased operations in 2013and as of 2015 the Government had put out bids for its demolition.

Moret Gallard is honored at Ponce's Park of Illustrious Ponce Citizens. Only six other mayors, of over 200 former Ponce mayors, are honored there.