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At home, FJD kept busy with his office and his many civic interests, projects
and responsibilities, but his sadness was apparent even though he did not express his feelings directly. He simply
felt more comfortable when enmeshed in his familiar routine: going to the office everyday and spending quiet evenings
at home. Gardening continued both to stimulate and soothe him, and he, Herman Weil, Max Dinkelspiel and Michael
Weil still enjoyed their weekly Sunday morning card game, although they added to their schedule a regular Thursday
afternoon game as well. Sometimes, Mr. Good sat in with them. Carol Eiseman remembered the game of the cronies.
"I can still smell Mr. Good's strong cigar that he held between his yellowed teeth," she wrote. "This
was a serious game. I walked around the card table, but I wasn't allowed to ask the players questions. It was a
game for me just to circle the card table in the solarium, observing the cards and the four men." FJD also
delighted in Ruth's friends who came to visit; Wilma Shields, in particular, was one of those who was "crazy
about Father." Ruth was busy working at Newman, but she had plenty of time to spend with him, and the two
were comfortable companions.
On the occasion of FJD's eighty-eighth birthday, February 17, 1945, his good friend and fellow City Park board
member Charles Denechaud presented FJD with flowers from the board and also from the City Park employees, the latter,
as Denechaud told him, "in appreciation for the many things you have done for them." Denechaud also spoke
of FJD's lifetime of achievements, recounting those in particular where, as an elected official, FJD had served
"with distinction...and in the interest of the electorate" and had proved a "credit" to both
himself and to his office. Referring specifically to FJD's spending more than a half century on the City Park board,
Denechaud assured him that, "As our President we have felt your guiding hand and inspiration through the years"
and that it was a "privilege for a man to say that he has been associated with you." Wishing FJD many
more fruitful years of active contribution, Denechaud described his life as "a beautiful monument of ideal
family life and unyielding honor," and said that those who had served under FJD's leadership were "proud
to be numbered among... [his] intimates."
For an unidentified New Orleans newspaper of the following year, local author André Lafargue penned a deeply
appreciative column which he entitled, "A Public Spirited Citizen." It is well worth quoting in full:
"We are living in the most strenuous and critical times that war
torn and suffering humanity has ever yet encountered. Spiritual and moral values have taken a significance of a
most sharpened and intense character. Institutions and men are being tested and gauged at their full and complete
character and value. And so it is that when we come across a real, public spirited and civic minded citizen, we
gladly and promptly take our hat off and salute him, giving him full recognition physically and spiritually.
One of these men, in our midst, is most assuredly, Felix J. Dreyfous,
attorney at law, notary public, held in high regard by his fellow members of the Bar and by all those who know
him well and who are aware of his many activities of a civic and public welfare character. For years and years
Mr. Dreyfous' law offices have been a veritable bee hive of legal and notarial humming and activity. I am quite
convinced that few of us at the Bar have ever emulated this splendid man in professional and legal energy. His
sense of duty to his chosen profession and to his work has always been of the highest measure. Irrespective of
the absorbing character of his professional work he has always found time to devote himself most assiduously to
the institutions in our midst which help the unfortunates and which carry on useful social welfare work. Among
his top activities in this regard we can certainly mention the Milne Home for Boys and his long years of presidency
of the City Park Board of Commissioners. I am told that every day Mr. Dreyfous visits our beautiful City Park,
before he goes to his office, and that he also makes his daily rounds at the Milne Boys' Home.
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