This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Boxing is a mano a mano competition for primacy, two fighters alone in a ring with a referee. But for Francisco Mendez, it was also a family affair. His wife and children helped out in the gyms he opened by scraping together savings from menial jobs. And many of the loyal amateurs and professionals he trained became like family, too.

“Francisco was special,” Julie Anne Kelly, a Golden Gloves champion, told Boxing Insider. “He knew just what you needed to hear, when you needed to hear it, to box with everything you had. As a fighter, as his fighter, you wanted nothing more than to do that. For him.”

Mr. Mendez, who survived two bouts of cancer, died on April 21 in Jersey City, N.J., at 61. His son, Francisco Jr., who is known as Frankie, said the cause was complications of the novel coronavirus.