Chuck Wissmiller, 79, passed away Friday, April 24, 2020, of heart failure after struggling with a variety of health issues in recent years. Mr. Wissmiller was living in a San Diego nursing home at the time of his death.

Mr. Wissmiller starred in Family Plots, an A&E realty television show that aired from 2004-2006, after he moved to California. The series focused on a family-owned mortuary he worked for with his daughters in Poway.

But Mr. Wissmiller is best known in the Grand Rapids area as a boxing icon during a career that spanned from 1959 to 2015. He was an amateur and professional fighter, trainer, promoter and club owner, operating the Roosevelt Lodge on Grandville Avenue.

“He was what they used to call a man’s man, a stand-up person,” said Bruce Kielty, a West Michigan boxing historian. “He knew how to get along with people and he could relate to them. With the amateur boxers he worked with, several of them maintained a relationship with him decades after they quit boxing.

Wissmiller was born in Alma and his parents were professional dancers. He began pursuing boxing as a teenager. He won the 175-pound Junior Novice Championship in the 1959 Detroit Golden Gloves, and the following year, he captured the Detroit Golden Gloves Novice title at 175 and was a semi-finalist in the 1960 Michigan AAU Tournament. The latter led to a shot at the Eastern Regional Olympic Trials in Louisville, which featured Cassius Clay.

Mr. Wissmiller competed in the 1961 and 1962 West Michigan Golden Gloves Tournaments after relocating to the Grand Rapids area. Mr. Wissmiller then turned professional in 1962 and had seven bouts between 1962-1964. Mr. Wissmiller found his second calling as a trainer after retiring from the ring. One of the boxers he trained was his son, who began fighting while attending Creston High School in the late 1980s.

Mr. Wissmiller is survived by Von and his three daughters, Melissa, Shonna and Emily and seven grandchildren. His daughters were regulars with him on Family Plots, which not only focused on the funeral business but family relationships.

“He said his only regret from his TV career was that he wasn’t on Dog the Bounty Hunter,” Kielty said.

Wissmiller also lives in the San Diego area, but he said he hadn’t been able to visit his father due to the coronavirus pandemic.