Nicole Wertheim was honored by South Florida’s philanthropic community on April 20 for the more than $300 million she and her ex-husband Herbert Wertheim had donated to local institutions for decades.
This particular honor, by SocialMiami, naming Wertheim as its Philanthropist of the Year, was in recognition of the $10 million gift she and her then-husband made in 2013 to Florida International University to create the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences.
Her daughter Erica Wertheim Zohar accepted the honor on her mother’s behalf. That’s because her mom was sailing the Pacific to Polynesia aboard the residence ship, The World, thousands of miles away.
Soon after the ceremony in Miami, she called her mom. But the phone rang and rang.
At the moment Nicole Wertheim was being feted for her philanthropy, her daughters Erica and Vanessa learned, “she was already pursuing a final horizon,” they wrote in a family memorial.
“A poignant irony,” Wertheim Zohar said.
Nicole Wertheim died at age 82 on April 20 in her shipboard room, the crew told Erica. The cause of death was listed as heart related, she said.
“She left this life at the exact moment the city she helped build had paused to say thank you.”
Early life in Miami on the river
Curiously, Wertheim’s life in Miami began on its rough and tumble waterway.
For a few years after they were married in 1969, Herbert and Nicole Wertheim lived on a 22-by 52-foot houseboat moored in the Miami River. The abode had leopard-print walls, a red kitchen sink, black countertops and no other appliances, the Miami Herald reported in a 2005 profile of the couple. A broom from Sears served double duty as a place to hang their clothes. Their most familiar neighbor was the occasional manatee that drifted by their home.
“Very ‘60s,” Nicole Wertheim told the Herald at the time.
Dr. Herbie, as he came to be known, would leave that watery home to work at his optometry office. He initially grew up living above his parents’ Miami Beach bakery where they had settled in 1945. He dropped out of high school when his self-diagnosed dyslexia made it difficult for him to read. Other kids made fun of him in elementary school when they saw he had dirty feet from wearing old shoes with no socks.
Nicole, who came to the United States from Nice with little but her name, Nicole Laurenti, and a model’s portfolio and a desire to see the world, was her husband’s bookkeeper and assistant.
When a few bucks started to come in from the optometry business, the Wertheims dashed off a $2,000 down payment toward the $16,000 purchase of 2.5 acres of land in the Killian neighborhood in South Miami-Dade.
They built their own house, they told the Herald in 2005. They rented a crane on the weekends for $25 an hour. “I’d pick up the crane and drive it, and Nicole would follow in the car ... ”
“... At 20 miles an hour,” she finished his sentence.
“And we put the steel in place,” he said.
Eventually, the house had a 135-foot conservatory and the couple sold it for a house in Gables Estates.
In 1971, Dr. Herbie founded Brain Power Inc., to make optical lens tints and ophthalmic instruments and chemicals, including the development of UV 400 Tint, which deflects UV rays in glasses.
A best friend and hero
Then, as the first of their two daughters, Erica, was born, Nicole began what some call her greatest work: parenting. To her own children and, soon, the community’s children through endowments and scholarships, including $1 million to FIU’s music graduate students in the 1990s.
Wertheim became an inspiration to her children, they say, when, in July 2023, she filed for divorce from her husband, citing infidelity. She was over 80 at the time. He’s now 86. They had been married 54 years.
“My mother was my best friend and my hero,” Wertheim Zohar said. “She taught all of us to stand up for what you believe in no matter your age. She had a quiet strength. She was the true essence of beauty, brains, and grace but most of all a gentle and selfless love.”
Adds Dr. Vanessa Wertheim, a nurse and educator: “My mother was the definition of resilient, graceful, and kind. She was unconditional in her love, forthcoming with her wisdom, and unwavering in her philanthropy.”
Philanthropist Darlene Pérez, namesake benefactor with her husband Jorge to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and co-leader of The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation, befriended Nicole Wertheim when both families joined the Giving Pledge a decade ago.
“She was definitely the most friendly and so modest and so elegant and so kind,” Pérez said. “I learned a lot being in groups and committee groups with her.”
They also bonded over a shared love for nursing and mutual support of FIU’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences. Pérez, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who earned her undergraduate and nursing degrees from FIU, is on its board.
“That was a connection. We were fond of each other for that beautiful profession and her support for FIU. When we saw each other it was meaningful, and I learned something all the time,” Pérez said.
Nicole and Herbert’s humble beginnings marked them.
“That’s why we have to be very sensitive with children,” Nicole Wertheim told the Miami Herald in 2005, about the motivation that led the couple to create the Dr. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Family Foundation in 1977, and in 2015, to join the Giving Pledge alongside luminaries like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Miami’s Jorge and Darlene Perez, with promises to donate much of their wealth.
The Wertheims’ philanthropy
The Wertheims eventually amassed a fortune topping $3 billion through investments and proceeds from the business.
“She was a builder of success, not just a beneficiary of it,” her daughters Erica and Vanessa said.
Among the beneficiaries in the public sector:
- Nicole’s name graces the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the FIU School of Music, and the FIU Wertheim Conservatory. The couple’s donations included a $10 million naming gift to the FIU School of Music, which is part of the College of Communication, Architecture + the Arts. Also, the $10 million gift to create the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences. Other named institutions at FIU include: the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, the Herbert & Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, and the Wertheim Plant Research and Teaching Conservatory.
READ MORE: Florida International University receives record $10 million gift for its music school
“Nicole Wertheim,” FIU President Jeanette M. Nuñez said in her message to the university community, was “a remarkable champion and benefactor of FIU whose compassion, generosity and vision have left an indelible mark on our university and our community.”
FIU nominated Wertheim in 2023 for induction as an honorary member of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Honor Society of Nursing. “A rare tribute reserved for those whose dedication to the field transcends the ordinary,” Nuñez said. “What set Nicole apart was not the scale of her generosity but the sincerity of her presence. She was never transactional. She showed up.”
Added Dr. Juan Cendan, dean of FIU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, in a message to Wertheim’s daughters: “While Nicole Wertheim often remained outside the spotlight, the depth of her commitment, insight and resolve was clear to those within the FIU community who had the opportunity to work with her. For more than five decades, she was a true partner in the vision and generosity that made so many transformative gifts possible. Her perspective, values, and steady guidance played an essential role in the philanthropic spirit that has touched countless lives through FIU.”
Of the more than $280 million in educational gifts during the couple’s marriage, much also went outside of FIU. Some of these included $50 million for the School of Optometry at UC Berkeley; $100 million to the University of Florida for the UF Scripps Institute of Biomedical Innovation & Technology; and $25 million to UC San Diego for the School of Public Health, according to daughter Wertheim Zohar.
It’s not just buildings where you may have seen the couple’s names. Did you watch South Florida’s public television Channel 2 in the 1980s and ‘90s? If you watched “National Geographic,” “Nova” and “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” you saw the Wertheim name on your TV screen. The couple helped fund and sponsor those Channel 2 programs or the station wouldn’t have been able to provide them, according to Miami Herald archives.
The final chapter
“Perhaps the most extraordinary chapter of Nicole’s life occurred after age 80,” her daughters Erica and Vanessa wrote in their memorial, shared with the Herald. They were referring to her July 2023 divorce filing and the legal battles in Miami-Dade Circuit Court over foundation assets that followed.
“For Nicole, this difficult decision was the ultimate act of protection - protecting her own dignity and the integrity of the family legacy she had spent a lifetime building. ... She wanted her legacy to protect other women from the invisible patterns of control she had navigated herself, ensuring that the strength she found at 80 could be shared with those who felt they had no voice,” they wrote.
“She proved that the greatest gift one can give isn’t a building - it’s the example of a life lived with dignity, fierce love, and the strength to stand tall until the very end.”
Survivors
Wertheim’s survivors include her daughters Erica Wertheim Zohar and Dr. Vanessa Wertheim; and grandchildren Elan, Ethan, Alexa, and Julia. Services are private. Her family created a memorial page at nicolewertheim.com.
