Charles Andrew Rheingans

Charles Rheingans, 71, passed away peacefully on Sunday morning, January 4, surrounded by his daughters, sister, niece, and cousin and the love and prayers of hundreds of extended family and friends from around the globe. Charles, who also went by Charlie and Chas, but never Chuck, was born the fifth of six children to Ralph Rheingans, Sr. and Cleo May (Jacobs) Rheingans.

Charlie graduated from Fenton High School in 1972. As a boy, he was active in multiple levels of Boy Scouts. While growing up, he played many sports over the years (hockey, basketball, baseball, wrestling, football) - both on the official school teams as well as on the pond and streets with neighborhood kids. After high school, Charlie participated in various softball leagues, and he eventually took up golfing, becoming a longtime member at Tyrone Hills. In addition to playing sports for decades, he was also a rabid fan of Detroit professional sports teams and the University of Michigan, as well as loved watching various forms of auto racing, golf, international soccer, and women’s sports of all kinds.

Charlie was married in April 1981, which resulted in the births of his two daughters. After his divorce, Charlie fought for primary responsibility of raising his two daughters. Having been a rambunctious boy and young man, raising daughters helped him gain patience as he coached their basketball and softball teams, cheered loudly from the stands at their various sporting events, chaperoned their prom, took them on camping and other trips, helped them learn to drive, and supported them through dating, graduations, marriages, and births.

Charles started his work career with a newspaper route for the Fenton Independent and was very entrepreneurial and had his sister do the actual delivery. He worked for decades in Fenton at companies that created machines and parts related to the auto industry, and traveled the world to manage business contracts, visiting Algeria, Japan, China, and more. He started in high school sweeping floors of one local factory, learned how to fix the various machines there, worked his way up to being a contract and project manager, and eventually left when offered to start a new factory making disposable medical products in China, where he lived for over five years.

Friends and family describe Charlie as a real character, with a rough exterior, but a big softie who would show up for friends and family time and time again. Charlie was quick to identify the good in everyone, loved making people laugh with his jokes, and relished retelling stories of his shenanigans growing up. Charlie was also well-traveled, not only for work contracts, but also visiting various tropical locales for vacations, and taking the trip of a lifetime with his daughters to Europe, including visiting the Rheingans family’s ancestral hometown, Rheinböllen, in Germany. In his travels, Charlie never met a food he wasn’t willing to try. In recent years, Charlie had a nearly weekly ritual of meeting up with a regular crew of local guys, including multiple cousins, at “The Milkhouse”, where they would swap news and retell and embellish stories. There, he was eventually nicknamed “The Commissioner” due to attendees’ reverence for him as a patriarch of the group.

Charlie was preceded in death by his parents, Ralph Rheingans Sr and Cleo May (Jacobs) Rheingans, four older siblings (Ralph Jr., Robert, Mary, Walter), and niece Jennifer Rebecca Couture. Charlie is survived by his younger sister Carol (Gary) Campbell, daughters Carrie (Matthew Cunningham) Rheingans, Christine Keway, granddaughters Allie and Anna Keway and Autumn Rheingans, special niece Leighanna Nichol, and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, and close friends.

A memorial service will be held at Sharp Funeral Homes, 1000 W. Silver Lake Rd., Fenton, Saturday, January 10. The family will receive guests with light refreshments from 2:00pm-4:00pm, and the service will begin at 4:00pm. The service will also be live streamed and can be viewed via the link at the base of Charles's obituary at www.sharpfuneralhomes.com. A larger celebration of life will occur later this summer at Charlie’s favorite hangout spot, “The Milkhouse”; date and time will be announced soon.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making contributions to the Charles A. Rheingans Memorial Fund at the American Diabetes Association (https://diy-diabetes.donordrive.com/campaigns/Charles-A-Rheingans-Memorial-Fund).