He was born in La Serena on August 4th, 1871. He studied at the Public School of La Serena and in 1887 he moved to Santiago to study Medicine, although he ended up studying Law, graduating in 1902.
When he was still studying law, he entered the Instituto Pedagogico (Pedagogical Institute), graduating as a professor of History, Geography and Philophy (1892).
He began a career as a teacher at the Liceo de Chillan (Chillan Public School) (until 1903). Then he transferred to the Liceo de Concepcion (Concepcion Public School, present day Enrique Molina School) and stayed there teaching until 1905. That very year he took up the position of headmaster of the Liceo de Hombres de Talca (Talca Public School for Boys) until 1915.
For his good performance, in 1911 the government sent him to take perfection lessons in pedagogy and administration at universities in Germany and France.
Later, he took charge of the headmaster position at the Liceo de Concepcion (Concepcion Public School), and from this position he promoted the idea of creating a center of higher learning in this city. This led him to present a project to president Sanfuentes. However, he was not immediately successful in this task so he devoted himself to raising funds for the university.
The government sent him to the United States in order to get to know this country’s university systems (1918). Under this influence, the Universidad de Concepcion (University of Concepcion) was born and Molina was one of its founders. In 1919, he reached the position of chancellor, staying until 1956. That year he received the title of honorary lifetime chancellor of the Universidad de Concepcion and honoris causa professor of the Universidad de Chile. Between 1947 and 1948, he was minister of Education for Gabriel Gonalez Videla.
He passed away on March 6th, 1964.
