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Floyd R. Weisz (Courtesy photo / October 30, 2012) |
The funeral service for Floyd R. Weisz, 76, is 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1620 Milwaukee Ave. N.E., Aberdeen. Pastor Deb Grismer will lead the worship. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery.
Visitation is from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Gramm Funeral Home in Ipswich and one hour prior to the service at the church on Thursday.
Floyd was born April 29, 1936, to H. Erwin and Frieda (Jundt) Weisz at Eureka. As a youngster, his family moved to Aberdeen, where he attended grade school. His family then moved to Fargo, where he graduated from high school. While in school in Fargo, Floyd played hockey. Floyd went on to Moorhead State University.
Floyd served in the United States Navy. Upon his honorable discharge, he returned to the Fargo area, where one of his first jobs was as the regional sales manager for Massey-Ferguson Industrial and Construction Machinery, a job that he loved and still had dreams about. During this time, his interest in cars and motorsports continued to grow and led him to owning car lots and participating as a driver in auto races.
Floyd was an avid promoter and saw great opportunity in the promotion of motorsports. He was ahead of his time in his promotional style and utilized it to build successful race facilities, including Buffalo River Raceway in Glyndon, Minn., and Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen. He also promoted race shows at Bismarck Capital Raceway in Bismarck, N.D.; Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Mont.; Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron; Fargo South Speedway in Fargo, N.D.; and Gillette Thunder Speedway in Gillette, Wyo.
He married Patricia R. Beyers on Feb. 14, 1979. They made their first home in Aberdeen. They worked together 24/7 in the race promotion business, often driving through the night after races to get to the next track to prepare for the next show. They also worked together in the specialty car business, buying and selling collector cars at auctions around the United States.
They moved to California, where they operated a successful specialty car lot, but eventually moved back to South Dakota, where they turned Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City into one of the nation’s premier dirt tracks. Floyd received many honors in the motorsports industry over his years of race promotion. His success was in part due to his unrelenting efforts to offer fans and participants a top notch experience at his facilities. He would spend countless hours making notes, filling hundreds of yellow legal pads with ideas on how to improve his next show. He felt blessed to have the help of his “PR” and his son David to make his ventures a success.
Floyd loved the motorsports and the specialty car business and it led him to many wonderful friends who became like family to him over the years. He loved to entertain those friends and really enjoyed cooking and grilling for everyone. In his later years, he and Patty maintained a home in Arizona during the winter and their lake home at Mina Lake.
He also liked to fish, ski, go boating, tinker on cars, and watch NASCAR and the Minnesota Vikings.
Floyd was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith and was a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Aberdeen. He was also a member of the Gilbert American Legion Post 39 of Gilbert, Ariz.
Floyd died Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012, at his residence.
He is survived by his wife, Patty, of Mina Lake; his son, David (Sue) Weisz, of Belgrade, Mont.; daughters: Wendy (Doug) Guthmiller of Aberdeen, Cindy Flatt of Edgeley, N.D., Stacy (Kelly) Palmer of Nixa, Mo., and April Weisz of Gilbert, Ariz.; his mother, Frieda Weisz of Aberdeen; sister, Shirley (Victor) Cossette of Chanhassen, Minn.; grandchildren: Cassie Blachford, Nick Guthmiller, Lucas Flatt, Matthew Flatt, Michaela Flatt, Jasmine Weisz-Dittmer, Ali Weisz, Tanner Palmer, Bailey Weisz, Hannah Weisz, and Alexa Lembezeder; mother-in-law, Ruth Beyers of Aberdeen; brothers-in-law: John (Patty) Beyers of Roscoe, Bob (Peg) Beyers of Rapid City and Mark (Carla) Beyers of Roscoe; and many wonderful friends.
His father, H. Erwin Weisz; father-in-law, Raymond Beyers; and best friend, R.E. “Swede” Carlson, preceded him in death.
Floyd’s goal in his racing, race promotions, businesses and in life was to insure that others had a good time and a great experience without the expectation of receiving anything in return. Just a smile and a promise to do it all again, only better the next time. His race on earth has had the checkered flag fall and it’s on to the next race . . .
Services with Gramm Funeral Home of Ipswich.
grammfuneralhome.com
