‘We lost a giant.’ Miami businessman, philanthropist Mike Carricarte dies at 83

Local Obituaries admin June 24, 2026 0 Comments

‘We lost a giant.’ Miami businessman, philanthropist Mike Carricarte dies at 83

Miami businessman, philanthropist and entrepreneur Mike Carricarte Sr. might have cringed at this obituary.

Family and friends give credit to a man who quietly gave tirelessly to schools, hospitals, churches, students and orphanages. A self-made Cuban-American success story, Carricarte was a community leader, a decorated Vietnam veteran, a star high school and college athlete, an Iron Arrow recipient, a mentor. He was a man of faith who helped raise his seven children to share their talents and to support others using the blueprint he designed.

Michael Anthony Carricarte, born June 20, 1942, in Havana, Cuba, and a Miami man since 1948, didn’t brag. He just did things.

He built his fortunes in the international healthcare and insurance industry. In 1986, he founded and served as CEO of Amedex and USA Medical Services to provide medical insurance throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. He also ran real estate, private lending and investment businesses.

“Mike lived life to the fullest,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an email to the Miami Herald. “He participated in our trade missions with a joyful enthusiasm that was contagious. I am really sorry to learn of his passing.”

Carricarte taught his children business and the art of giving back.

“He believed every life had value and that success meant little unless it was used to lift others up,” his family said in his obituary, written by his children after Carricarte’s death June 15 at 83, five days shy of his 84th birthday.

His philanthropic life

Carricarte served on boards, including Camillus House, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, U.S.–Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise Florida, Christopher Columbus High School and the Baptist Health Foundation Founders Society.

He was the founding donor of the Jackson Memorial International Program, a member of the Golden Angels, and supported South Florida schools including Miami Dade College, Epiphany School, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy and Kendall Christian School. He paid tuition for students whose families lacked the resources. He never advertised these gifts. He donated to charitable organizations throughout Florida and Latin America.

“We lost a giant last week. And I lost a dear, dear friend. So giving. So thoughtful. So genuine. There was no one I’ve ever met who had a thirst for life like Mike,” said Ben Mollere, corporate vice president for Baptist Health South Florida, Hospitality & Business Relations.

Supporting Miami schools and the military

In 1995, Carricarte’s son Mike Jr., then 27, president of an insurance services company and inspired by his father, “adopted” the students at Overtown’s St. Francis Xavier School and helped lead construction on a new classroom building that could offer students a pre-kindergarten class and a sixth grade and more classrooms for seventh- and eighth-graders.

The younger Carricarte, much like his father, deflected praise and shined credit on others. “If you spend an hour or two with those students, you see so much,” Carricarte Jr. said at the time in a publisher’s column the Miami Herald ran in July 1995. “I get far more out of it than the students do. I leave that school sometimes and nothing — nothing — can touch me.”

Sounds like Dad.

“Mike was the loving patriarch of a family that did so much to make this a better community. The saving of St. Francis Xavier School back in the ‘90s comes to mind. Mike Jr. was the guy whose story of saving St. Francis was told in the Herald, but he and his siblings would tell you the joyous soul behind so many good works was Dad,” said David Lawrence Jr., retired Miami Herald publisher and chair of The Children’s Movement of Florida.

In 2016, Carricarte Sr. dedicated Patriot Plaza at his alma mater, Christopher Columbus High School in Westchester. He wanted to honor the more than 400 alumni who had served in the armed forces like he had. Col. Carricarte served as a U.S. Army officer and Special Forces Green Beret and entered combat operations in Vietnam after graduating as an ROTC Distinguished Honor Graduate from the University of Miami in 1963.

He also wanted to honor his older brother, 2nd Lt. Louis Carricarte, an aviator who was one of the first casualties of the Vietnam conflict in December 1963, before the official deployment of U.S. combat troops in 1965.

Bigger than life

“It’s so cliché-ish to say bigger than life. Mike Carricarte was frigging bigger than life. He wasn’t big in stature but when he walked into a room, the papers would start rattling around, and the wind would blow, and he was just like a force of nature, and he was just an amazing guy who never wanted any credit for anything that he did,” said one of his oldest friends, E. Carter Burrus. He first befriended Carricarte and his older brother Louis in the 1950s when the three were student-athletes at St. Theresa Catholic School, in Coral Gables.

In 1958, St. Theresa phased out its high school program to feed into four feeder schools the Miami diocese opened in Miami to serve a growing Catholic population: Christopher Columbus High School and Archbishop Curley High School for boys, and Immaculata Academy and Notre Dame Academy for girls, said Burrus.

Michael — he preferred Mike — Carricarte was in Columbus’ first graduating class of 40 students in 1959. His four sons are Columbus grads: Michael ‘86, Louie ‘95, Andrew ‘97, and Brian ‘02.

In 2021, he joined with his family to establish the Carricarte Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Curriculum Pathway program at Columbus. The family name and logo adorns the business classroom building.

He’d joke with his pal, Burrus: “I was a C-student all the way through St. Teresa, and my one year at Columbus. And I could give a rat’s ass about grades. I just want to see what’s in your heart.”

READ MORE: Carricarte family establishes new business program at Columbus High

Burrus graduated from Columbus in 1962 and became the school’s first alumnus faculty member in 1968. Burrus served numerous roles in two runs for a combined 43 years before retiring at the end of this school year in June. He recounts a typical Carricarte story.

“Every Valentine’s Day, all of a sudden 100 orchids would show up at Columbus and every single secretary would get an orchid. And then he never took one credit for it. And then he would bring over to my house, what was left over,” Burrus said. “He was just such a kind, sweet person.”

Lavish dinner parties

Carricarte’s December dinner parties at his Ocean Reef property in Key Largo were legendary. Hundreds attended. Governors. Commissioners. Mayors. Business people. School and hospital officials. Members of the media. Fellow alumni. Board members. Friends. His expanding family. Carricarte treated them to heaping plates of stone crabs and grilled Florida lobster. Burrus chuckles at the quirky things his buddy would do at these parties. Like the time he had 10 golf carts ready to go on his grounds.

“Mike, what’s all these golf carts?” Burrus asked. “Well, every grandkid’s gotta have their own golf cart, right?” Carricarte answered.

“Mike lived life to the fullest,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an email to the Miami Herald. “He participated in our trade missions with a joyful enthusiasm that was contagious. I am really sorry to learn of his passing.”

Carricarte believed deeply, his family said, that blessings carried responsibilities. “His life reminds us that true success is not measured by what we accumulate, but by what we build, what we give, and how we love,” his children wrote for his obituary.

“Few people leave a legacy as profound as Mike Carricarte’s,” said Columbus President Thomas Kruczek. “From founding our Patriot Plaza that honors our alumni who have served in the armed forces to creating opportunities for future business leaders through the Carricarte Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Curriculum Pathway, he ensured that his love for Columbus would inspire generations to come.”

Survivors and services

Mike Carricarte’s survivors include his seven children Anne Louise “Missy,” Michael Jr., Jenny, Louie, Andrew, Grace and Brian; his wife, Adriana; and 18 grandchildren.

A burial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at Caballero Woodlawn North, 3260 SW Eighth St. in Miami. A celebration of life follows at 4:30 p.m. at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave. in Coral Gables.