Chester A Schmidt was born on October 8, 1936 in Montezuma, Kansas. He was the son of Albert and Laura Schmidt. He was the youngest of the family. Chet completed his education in the Montezuma Schools and graduated in 1955 as a Montezuma Indian. Chet married Vera Koehn, of Montezuma, and together they had two daughters. He later married Deborah Sue LeMastres in 1995.

Chet began his farming career working for a farmer at Sublette and then moved to Ulysses. In 1965, Chet came back to Montezuma to take over the farm. He continued farming until 1987. While farming, Chet was a carpenter as well as a handyman who could do almost anything. He drove a truck for DeKalb Seed company in the winter for 23 years and then built houses in the spring and summer as well as farming the family farm ground. When he built a house, he did the entire house from digging the basement, pouring the concrete, framing, sheetrock, finish work, etc. The only thing he would contract out was the masonry work.

After selling the trucks, Chet took a job in Garden City working at the Garden Valley Retirement Village as the lead maintenance man. He was much more than a maintenance man! He continued to use his carpentry skills as well as his handyman abilities to fix almost anything that broke. He retired from Garden Valley in the fall of 1999, moved to Arlington. He ended his career by working at Waldron Place, Hutchinson in maintenance and transportation.

Chet loved the mountains! He visited every summer, and a highlight was living in the mountains one summer as a camp host. He came back with many bear stories! Chet continued his passion for wood into retirement and was always in his garage building something. Chet was an avid gospel Bluegrass music lover. There was a time when he rarely missed a festival. He sang with a group of friends and in later years, always had music linked from his phone to his hearing aids.

Chet was seldom without a dog. Well….the dogs were not exactly dogs, but very spoiled pets! The current one is Max who belonged to his grandson Jarett. Chet took Max and loved him and has spoiled him to point that Max has his own coffee cup to be able to drink coffee with Chet. He loved nothing more than to tease his cousin and her cats! He preferred dogs over cats, but was known to take in strays whether they were cats, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks, etc.

Chet was always known as the fun uncle. His nieces and nephews always looked forward to spending time with Chet and enjoyed his teasing and jokes. Chet loved new cars! After a year or two, you always knew he would soon come home with a new car. He simply loved cars either owning them, working on them, or car shows. The best is the time when he bought a Corvair, sold it and had money in his pocket to only have the police notify him a few days later that it was impounded and to come and get it. The gentleman had never changed the title, so Chet picked it up and sold it again!

Chet was a charter member of Morningside Community Church. He was a faithful follower of Christ and was always concerned that his family had a personal relationship with Christ.

Chet is survived by his wife Sue, of Arlington; daughters, Trina Schmidt and husband Wes of Cimarron/Derby and Diana Strunk and husband Jeff of Andale; stepdaughter, Susannah Struzik and husband Jason of Dodge City; stepson, Doug Peterman; a sister, LaVona Morrison of Arkansas City; three grandchildren, Alex Wynn and wife Bethany of Harrisonburg, Virginia, Lindsey Wynn of Hays, and Wade Strunk, of Andale; five step grandchildren, Katie Struzi of Tennessee; Amanda Lozano of Spearville, Debra Ladish of Canyon City, Colorado, David Peterman of  Meade, and Daniel Peterman, of Pueblo Colorado. The joy of his retirement was watching his eight great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his parents; twin brother, Charles; brother, Alton Schmidt; sister, Ada Sala; grandson, Jarett Wyn;, great grandson, Jonah Wynn; and stepson, Matthew LaMastres.

Funeral services will be on Friday, January 19, 2024 at Arlington United Methodist Church at 11:00 AM with ministers Rev. Angela Devore and Rev. Dennis Wallace presiding.  Due to the weather, the memorial service will be at 11:00 AM on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at Morningside Church, Montezuma, with family gathering afterwards at the church. Memorials are suggested to Arlington Methodist Church, Hospice House of Reno County, or Reno County Humane Society in care of Swaim Funeral Chapel – PO Box 421 – Montezuma, Kansas 67867.  Thoughts and memories may be shared in the online guest book at www.swaimfuneralhome.com