Well-traveled dad loved to laugh, be goofy

April 06--In the Chenet family, it was customary to thank Albert Chenet on Veteran's Day for his service.

It was a family joke, being that his "service" was literally 26 days: Mr. Chenet contracted polio as a child, as well as asthma, and was physically unable to serve after being drafted.

"He was sent to Fort Benning and never issued a uniform, never got sent to training," said his daughter Alison McCarron. "Eventually they figured it out and he was sent back home."

The good-natured ribbing fit right in with Mr. Chenet's sunny, humorous outlook on life.

"He loved to laugh, and he loved to be goofy," McCarron said.

Albert A. Chenet of Latrobe died Monday, Jan. 29, 2018, of heart failure. He was 74.

Mr. Chenet was born June 14, 1943, in Latrobe, the second child of Albert and Katherine Chenet.

He earned a degree in metallurgical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Tech). After learning the insurance business from his father, he operated the Albert Chenet Insurance Agency for more than four decades.

He met the mother of his children, Pam (Chenet) Mooney while traveling in Louisville, Ky.

"My mother was working at the hotel where he was staying, which is hilarious because that's how I met my husband," said McCarron, who works as a hotel manager an hour from Louisville.

Traveling was a big part of the Chenet family's life.

"Dad traveled with his parents back to Italy, and he started taking us to Europe in 1982," McCarron said. "We'd go over for a couple weeks every year."

Mr. Chenet's daughter Melanie McConnell of Cincinnati has fond memories of taking a father-daughter trip to England when she was 10 years old.

"We got to stay at a castle outside London, we got to see Buckingham Palace and a lot of 'tourist-checklist' things in London," McConnell said. "He wanted us to learn and experience as much as we could. That was his thing."

The family also made regular trips to Florida, Virginia Beach and Ocean City, Md.

"Anywhere there was sun, my dad wanted to go," McConnell said. "We'd take amusement-park trips in the summers to place like Cedar Point and King's Dominion."

Because of his insurance business, working the voting polls at election time and being so friendly, "it was almost impossible for us to get in trouble, because everyone knew Dad," McConnell said.

"He was always smiling," McCarron said. "Every time anyone saw Dad, he had a smile on his face."

Mr. Chenet is survived by his three daughters, Melanie McConnell and husband, Frank, of Cincinnati; Debbie Millon and husband, Aaron, of Madison, Wis.; and Alison McCarron and husband, Randy, of Georgetown, Ky.; three grandchildren, and friend Pam Mooney, the mother of his daughters.

Family and friends will be received from 4 to 6 p.m. today and 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the John J. Lopatich Funeral Home, 601 Weldon St. in Latrobe. A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in the funeral home. Interment will be private.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

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