Lucio Chiquito Caicedo

Lucio Chiquito Caicedo was born in Cali, Colombia, on 22 May 1916, to a father from Antioquia and a mother from the Valle del Cauca. With a scholarship from the government of the Valle del Cauca he studied civil engineering at the Facultad de Minas of the National University of Colombia in Medellín, graduating in 1941.

He then saw a notice in El Colombiano for a British Council scholarship, applied, and was selected from 28 candidates. He reached England in 1943, during the Second World War, and in November 1947 obtained a master's degree in science and technology from the University of Manchester, with studies in hydraulics. He continued his training at universities in Colorado and Texas and completed an internship at the United States Bureau of Reclamation in Denver.

On his return to Colombia he worked on the Anchicayá hydroelectric plant in the Valle del Cauca. He was then recruited by Juan Guillermo Restrepo Jaramillo, manager of Medellín's municipal water department, to study the design and construction of the Piedras Blancas dam, and became its chief engineer. His hydrological inventory of Antioquia's water sources made possible some 26 power stations, including Guadalupe, Guatapé and San Carlos, and he took part in early studies for Hidroituango.

In 1955 he was one of the founders of Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM). The same year, with his friend José Tejada, he founded the consulting engineering firm Integral. He was also a founder of Camacol, the Colombian Chamber of Construction, in 1958, of the firm Sedic in 1971, and of the Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia in 1978. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Medellín.

At 73 he began research on the optimum use of a river's flow for power generation, irrigation and storage, analysing nine rivers including the Cauca and the Sogamoso. He completed the work during the Covid-19 pandemic and in September 2020, aged 104, submitted it to the University of Manchester as a doctoral thesis.

He was known to friends as Tito. In his later years he kept a routine of reading, walking and intellectual work, and said he still solved mathematical problems in his sleep. He was a lifelong reader of El Colombiano. In May 2026 he turned 110 and was considered the oldest man in Colombia.

Lucio Chiquito Caicedo died on Friday 13 November 2026 at the age of 110. The cause of death and funeral arrangements were not made public at the time his death was reported. Tributes came from the Facultad de Minas of the National University, from the general manager of the EPM Group, John Alberto Maya Salazar, from former Antioquia governor Aníbal Gaviria Correa and from former EPM manager Mauricio Restrepo Gutiérrez.

He is remembered as one of the engineers who built the public services of Medellín and Antioquia, and as a founder of institutions that still shape the region, from EPM and Integral to Camacol and Universidad EIA. His honours included the Order of Merit Don Juan del Corral in the gold category and the Escudo de Antioquia in gold, awarded in 2023. His doctoral thesis at 104 made him a national example of lifelong learning.