Author Larry Barker once wrote that "effective listeners remember that words have no meaning -- people have meaning."

That was never so true as it was for Penn resident Chester Michalski Sr.

"He was a happy man who liked being around people," said his son, Chester Michalski Jr., of Butler. "It's part of the reason he owned a bar."

Mr. Michalski died Friday at Butler Memorial Hospital after a 17-year fight against prostate cancer. He was 86.

He was born Nov. 13, 1922 in Lawrenceville to Victor Michalski Sr. and Julie Piekietowski Michalski. The family moved to Butler County and established a farm off Victory Road in Saxonburg, which Mr. Michalski operated from 1937 to 1976. The farm originally raised milk cows, but Mr. Michalski switched to beef cows in 1963.

Mr. Michalski also was the retired owner and operator of the former Plane View Inn on Route 8 in Penn. He operated it from 1952 until 1992, when he briefly retired. He continued to lease the bar to another operator for 10 years before running it again himself in 2002. He sold it in 2004. The bar was renamed the Penn Cafe by its new owners but closed after just two years.

Mr. Michalski continued to farm as he ran the bar.

"He'd start off the day opening the bar, then he'd come home and farm as hard as he could until lunch, then go back to the bar and check on things, and then go back to the farm and then return to the bar," said his son. "I remember a lot of times him being sacked out on the recliner because he was so tired from doing both."

But Mr. Michalski enjoyed owning the bar, said his son.

"He loved to talk to people, and he genuinely cared about them," he said.

In his spare time, Mr. Michalski liked boating and gardening.He also liked to hunt, including expeditions in the West. His son said in 1974 his father took the largest mule deer in the state that year.

Mr. Michalski was a member of the Butler County Tavern Association and was its president for more than 20 years. He also was a charter member of the Penn Glad Lions Club, and a member of the Holy Sepulcher Roman Catholic Church in Glade Mills, where he served as an usher.

Mr. Michalski was an honorary life member of the Knights of Columbus Council 866 in Butler, and was a member and past faithful navigator of the Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree, St. Fidelis Assembly, in Butler.

Also surviving are his wife, F. Emma Varljen Michalski, of Penn; two daughters, Joan Louise Michalski, of Butler, and Mary Ann Williams, of Valencia; five grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by four brothers and five sisters.

A Mass was celebrated Tuesday morning at the Holy Sepulcher Church. Interment followed at St. Mary Cemetery, Herman.