Palma was known as an educator and a statesman. Born in Manila on October 24, 1874, Rafael Palma was a lawyer, journalist, educator, author and statesman. He was the son of Hermogenes Palma and Hilaria Velasquez, and an elder brother of Jose Palma, lyric-writer of the Philippine national hymn. After attending the municipal school of Tondo and the Ateneo Municipal, he took up law at Santo Tomas in 1891. During the second phase of the Revolution, Palma was editor of General Luna''s La Independencia. Later he became editor of the Cebu journal El Nuevo Dia but transferred to El Renacimiento after his articles were censored by Capt. McIntyre, U.S. commandant in Cebu. In 1907, he was elected member of the first Philippine Assembly as the representative from Cavite and the following year, a member of the Philippine Commission. He was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1916, appointed Secretary of the Interior in 1917, acting President of the University of the Philippines in 1923 and in 1925 received a permanent appointment which he held up to 1933. He was delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1934-35. He was conferred an LL.D., honoris causa by the University of Manila in 1936 and by the U.P. in 1938. In 1939, he was chairman of the National Council of Education. He was a Mason (33rd degree Scottisn Rite, honorary). Dr. Palma wrote articles on the "Theory of Races," published in series in "El Ideal." He also wrote a prize-winning biography in Spanish of Dr. Jose Rizal. Dr. Palma, one of the pillars of the Nacionalista Party, died on May 24, 1939. He was married to the former Carolina Ocampo by whom he had four children: Virginia, Hector, Alicia and Fe.