Gene Wimmer

Gene Owen Wimmer, 91, died Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, at Riverwalk Village in Noblesville. Born March 20, 1933, in Grant County to Charles Owen Wimmer and Mary Angeline (Curless) Craig, he was raised in Howard County in the home of his grandparents, Glen Owen and Ethel Mae Wimmer.

Wimmer attended Union Township School until his senior year of high school, when the township schools of eastern Howard County consolidated. He graduated from Eastern High School in 1951, the first class of the new school, and was part of a contingent of students who established green and gold as the school colors of the Eastern Comets. He played basketball and baseball and ran track and field for Union and Eastern high schools and was the 1951 Howard County pole vault champion. As a left-handed senior on the basketball team, he made 31 consecutive free throws, establishing a school record. He shot his free throws underhanded, accurately and unapologetically.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955. Upon his return home to Howard County, he married Roberta Ruth Murphy, also of eastern Howard County, on July 24, 1955, at Hemlock Friends Church in Hemlock. She preceded him in death in 2001.

When asked late in life what he had done for a living, Wimmer described himself as a farmer. But the reality of his work life was more complex, spanning agriculture, sales, restaurants, tractor repair, and the scrap business. At different periods in his life, he farmed hogs, dairy cattle, tomatoes, corn, and soybeans. He hauled grain as a truck driver, using the CB handle "Gene O." He sold Harvestores, truck parts, and International farm equipment, and he specialized in repairing International Farmalls. His favorite tractor was the 1950 Farmall MD. He owned and operated several restaurants in east central Indiana - the Tote-a-Burger in Gas City; Wimm's in Mount Etna; an ice cream shop in Sweetser; Giant in Fairmount; and the Back Door Bakery in Mount Etna, where he worked in support of his owner-operator wife. In the 1960s, the Tote-a-Burger brought Grant County its first double drive-thru, an innovation Wimmer had seen while stationed in California for the U.S. Army.

The constant throughout his work life was buying, selling, and scrapping used vehicles, an industry he became interested in as a boy during World War II, when Americans were encouraged to donate used metal for war production. As a teenager he began acquiring old trucks, tractors, and trailers to disassemble or repair, then selling them - whole or in pieces - for reuse or scrap metal. His most lucrative find in that line of work was a Marion-manufactured 1952 Crosley Super convertible with 10,000 miles and five original tires (including the spare, he would note). Instead of reselling the Crosley, he turned it into an object of his affection, driving it in parades and offering rides to his grandchildren and other friends. The Crosley once portrayed Greased Lightnin' in a Huntington North High School production of the musical "Grease."

For "retirement," he purchased a concession trailer large enough to haul the Crosley and transported it to county fairs and tractor shows in Indiana and Florida, parking the Crosley outside the trailer to attract business. When customers inquired about the pork barbecue sandwiches he sold, he was fond of saying: "The pork's so fresh, I knew the hogs" - which was almost true, as the pork was sourced through his late wife's cousin in Tipton County.

Besides his wife and his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Janice Ellingwood Wharton of Fairmount. Survivors include three sons, Rick (Deanna) Wimmer of Winter Haven, Florida; Rod Wimmer of Nashville, Tennessee; and Rob (Cindy) Wimmer of Greentown; one daughter, Amy (John) Schwarb of Indianapolis; six grandchildren, Cori (Adam) Arkins of Greenwood; Clint Wimmer of Greenwood; Chase (Katie) Wimmer of Lafayette; Chad (Sarah) Wimmer of Carmel; and Estelle "Edie" and Vivian Schwarb of Indianapolis; nine great-grandchildren, Avilynn, Owen, and Quinn Arkins of Greenwood; Elin and Ruth Wimmer of Lafayette; and Izzy Gorman and Charles, Eliza, and Evan Wimmer of Carmel; three sisters, Jane Carpenter of Greentown; Sue (Ed) Wesco of North Manchester; and Tonya Kemerly of Pendleton; one brother, Charles (Karla) Wimmer of Dakota, Illinois; and his longtime companion, Jane Clouser Watson of Tipton.

He also leaves behind, among other vehicles in various states of disrepair, a 1966 Chevrolet Corvair, a 1991 Buick Riviera, a half-dozen 1970s-era International Scouts, a trailer built by welding together the back ends of two cargo vans, a 1950 Farmall MD now in the care of his son Rob, and the Crosley, now in the care of his grandson Chad.

The family will receive visitors from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, at the Fairmount Chapel of Armes-Hunt Funeral Home, 415 S. Main St. in Fairmount. A funeral service will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 17, also at the Armes-Hunt Funeral Home, with Pastor William Salsbery of Heartland Ministries in Sharpsville officiating. Burial will immediately follow at the Mount Etna Cemetery in Huntington County, where Wimmer will be interred next to his late wife. Pallbearers are his grandsons, Clint, Chase, and Chad Wimmer; his grandson-in-law, Adam Arkins; and two of his nephews, Brent Ellingwood and Scott Carpenter, both of Fairmount.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be directed to the Grant County Community Foundation James R. Ellingwood Scholarship Fund, 505 W. Third St., Marion, IN 46952.