Appreciation - Ferdinand Felice

Prof. Anthony Serracino-Inglott, University of Malta, writes:

Pharmacists were very sad to hear recently that a past president of the Chamber of Pharmacists, Ferdinand Felice had passed away at a venerable age.

Ferdinand spent a good part of his life in Valletta, a city he loved dearly not only because he was a man of culture, but also because he made friends with one and all in the capital. I knew Ferdinand from my younger days, mainly through close friendships with his children, especially Alex who was first a schoolmate, then a university colleague and presently a fellow university professor.

In the early days we would organise a chess tournament at which different schools participated on Sunday mornings. When it was time to play in Valletta at St Albert's College, where Ferdinand was a devoted teacher, we would all be invited for coffee and biscuits at his home in old Bakery Street, a few doors away from St Albert's.

Ferdinand always welcomed and encouraged academia. He was a kind man and always the first to help and encourage all of us in our endeavors. Although I was by far his junior when I was the youngest member of the Chamber of Pharmacist during his presidency, I was pleased that he often took my suggestions warmheartedly. He treated people with great respect and compassion. During our meetings, he used to relate a number of stories not only about past pharmacy achievements, but even related to family trees and the great professors that were known to pharmacy and medicine both local and foreign.

In Valletta, as a young man, I used to watch him working in a pharmacy as a locum next door to the Casino Maltese. He looked a very dignified person wearing an impeccable white coat. I always watched him from the door with great admiration and awe. He must certainly have watered any seeds of attraction to the pharmacy profession that I might have had at the time.

He was very much delighted to see his only daughter take up pharmacy as her profession. But his greatest pleasure reached its peak when she was the first to graduate M. Phil. in Pharmacy at the University of Malta. By that time, I was a lecturer at the university and I had the pleasure to be one of the examiners of Mary Ann Sant Fournier, his daughter at her M.Phil examination. When the result was published you could clearly identify his pleasure which reflected his incalculable love for all his children.

Ferdinand will be greatly missed by many professionals, friends and family. My condolences go to his wife Olga, to his daughter Mary Ann who followed his footsteps as president of the Chamber of Pharmacists, and to his sons - my colleagues at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Alex and Donald - and his youngest son David who went into architecture, which was Ferdinand's hidden love, and to all his family and acquaintances. We shall remember him with great affection and respect.