Irving Ungerman fought his way out of the old Jewish neighbourhood of Kensington Market, both as a featherweight boxer and as a savvy businessman.

He found success in the poultry business and used his wealth to support charities in the Jewish community and beyond.

Along the way, he raised a family, taught them self-reliance and self-respect, helped countless individuals better their lots in life, managed nationally ranked boxers, and though a recipient of the Order of Ontario and the Diamond Jubilee Award, never lost the common touch. Ungerman passed away last week of a stroke at age 92.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at Beth Sholom Synagogue to pay their last respects, including a Toronto Police Service honour guard and an RCMP honour guard.

Ungerman was remembered as a larger-than-life figure, a bold, risk-taking entrepreneur with a heart of gold. Two of his daughters and several grandchildren delivered eulogies describing his profound and long-lasting impact on their lives.

Temmi Ungerman Sears said that despite several serious medical issues that plagued him in recent years, her father retained his boundless energy. “There was no one who could keep pace with this man,” she said.

At age 15, he was a champion featherweight boxer at only 105 pounds. He never set aside his love of the sport, teaching it while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II and working the corners in more than 100 fights subsequently. He managed Canadian champions to world title bids, she said.

Known for managing national champions George Chuvalo and Clyde Gray, Ungerman was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in 1973.

At the same time, he was a proud Jew who supported Israel and he took pride in helping raise funds for the country during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He also was involved in the wider community, and was one of the original directors of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. Riding along in the parade and wearing a red nose, he’d hand out candy to the kids on the parade route. It’s not clear who enjoyed it more, him or the kids, Ungerman Sears stated.

His generosity was legendary, she continued. Once while sharing a hospital room with a man named “George,” he learned his roommate needed financial assistance for a specialized heart valve or his life would be at risk. He wrote a cheque for $35,000 to the hospital to help him.

He wasn’t large in stature, but he was a giant of a man, Ungerman Sears said.

Shelley Sukerman, his other daughter, recalled her father as someone who “liked a good fight and never, never, never gave up.”

His was “a life well lived. Most people just live their lives. You owned yours,” she said of her father.

Several of Ungerman’s grandchildren described the life lessons they absorbed from him. “Since day one, I was enrolled in the Irving Ungerman school of hard knocks,” said grandson Jeremy Ungerman Sears.

Dylan Ungerman Sears recalled her grandfather was known as “the chicken man” and a “boxing legend.”

Rabbi Aaron Flanzraich noted that Ungerman and his wife, Sylvia, were great benefactors of Beth Sholom. On meeting Ungerman in his office, he noted that it was brimming with photos and memorabilia that spilled out everywhere. It was “as if he had been everywhere, maybe all at once,” Rabbi Flanzraich said.

Ungerman was devoted to his family, including his brothers and sisters who predeceased him. He stood on his own and from an early age, learned “to fight and to squeeze everything from life,” the rabbi said.

At least two of the fighters Ungerman managed attended the funeral – former Canadian welterweight champion Donovan Boucher and Canadian and Commonwealth welterweight champion Clyde Gray.

“Irv was the best,” Gray said. “He was always there for you.”

Gray, who fought in the 1960s and 1970s, said Ungerman helped support him by giving him a job as a truck driver, which permitted him to train in the afternoons. He arranged several world title fights, he added.

Evelyn Gray, Clyde’s wife, said Ungerman “was the go-to guy.” Even the Dundees, who managed Muhammad Ali, “came to Irv. He had the connections, the name, the ability. He had the fighters. He managed the two biggest fighters in Canadian history [Chuvalo and Gray],” she said.