Freddy Felix Chiche

Freddy was born on July 18th, 1940 in Tunis, Tunisia to Emile and Berthe (née Taieb) Chiche. He was the eldest of four: Ernest, Michele, and Reine. As a teenager in Tunis, he met Evelyne (née Karsenti), whom he moved to France with, married in December 1961, and had three children with: Nathalie, Stephane and Judith.

Freddy was the first in his family to earn a college degree, eventually gaining his medical degree at Université Paris V René Descartes. For 35 years, he was a known and respected cardiologist in France, until his retirement in 2004, when he and Evelyne moved to Miami Beach. In Miami, he continued making house calls, this time only to his children and grandchildren, many of whom lived nearby or came to visit, and relied on him as their expert on-call physician.

But doctor was only one of Freddy’s many professions (before and after retirement). We relied on him for many other things. For example, if you knew him from the Surfside Community Garden – where he was a gardener, volunteer and President for several years of his retirement — you knew he was an expert on bugs, plants and birds, and also an incredible neighbor who genuinely cared about the state of everything growing near him.

If you ever sat next to him at a dinner party, you may know he was a writer and a poet. He wrote about everything from the life of bees to his beautiful mother, but most of all what he called the greatest love story of all time: his relationship with his first and last, one and only, Evelyne.

He was also a musician, who could play virtually any instrument (or object not originally intended to be an instrument). He could make extremely convincing bird sounds and calls, and he loved to sing loudly in Hebrew or Italian. He made every Shabbat prayer into a Friday night at a jazz club. And he was also a fantastic dancer.

Freddy was a brilliant, relentlessly charming, joyful, kind and warm man. He was a father to more than just his three children, and he was a friend to almost everyone he met. We will remember not just everything he accomplished in his long and fulfilled life, but his strength, kindness and love of family. Not everyone can say they have had such an incredible impact on a family, community and planet as Dr. Freddy Chiche, but on behalf of this family, we’re so glad it was you, Freddy.

Freddy is survived by his wife Evelyne, his siblings, his children Nathalie, Stephane, and Judith, his grandchildren Maeva, Laura, Solal, Clara, Johan, Ben, Nina, Sam, Maya, Sacha, and his 5 great-grandchildren Louise, Rose, Yael, Ora and Jacob.

A funeral service for Freddy will be held Monday, March 18, 2024 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, 1125 NW 137th Street, Miami, FL 33168.