As a father, Ronald Lee Sheetz was fun, but you couldn’t pull anything over on him, according to his daughter, Michelle VanHorn.

“I was never given a curfew, but I knew I needed to be home,” she said. “I never wanted to be an embarrassment to my parents because I had such respect for them. I remember one time in junior high school I got some bad grades. My dad sat down with me and said, ‘I don’t expect you to be the best, but I expect you to do your best.’

“That’s how my parents both were.”

Ronald Lee Sheetz of New Kensington died Tuesday after a brief illness. He was 84.

He and his family are not part of the Altoona-based convenience store family of the same name.

“I wish we were,” said VanHorn, 57, who lives in the house where her father, an only child, grew up in Bellefonte. “We can’t even get a free cup of coffee.”

Sheetz’s life in the Alle-Kiski Valley included serving as registrar and director of business services at Penn State New Kensington in Upper Burrell for more than 20 years.

After taking an early retirement offer in 1993, he taught American history at Valley High School in New Kensington, getting a full-time teaching position when he was 55 and retiring from it in 2011 when he was 72.

Sheetz had earned a Bachelor of Science in secondary education from Penn State in 1962 and a master’s in education in 1969.

“He had never used his teaching certificate he had all those years. He decided that’s what he’d like to do,” said VanHorn, who teaches fifth grade at Lock Haven Catholic School. After retiring from teaching, “He missed it terribly.”

Sheetz served as a supervisor in Allegheny Township, elected in 1979 and serving until he resigned in March 1984.

“He was very big on justice. I think that he probably saw something that was going on in the township that he felt was not going the way it should have. Or maybe he thought people weren’t getting what they should have, or things were just wrong,” VanHorn said. “He was a big one for making sure things were fixed.”

Sheetz’s nearly four decade military career in the Army and then the Army Reserve began with an ROTC commission at Penn State.

“He felt it was important to serve your country,” VanHorn said. “If it was just for the money for college, he wouldn’t have stayed in for over 30-plus years.”

Sheetz entered active duty in 1962 and served as the commanding officer of the 554th Transportation Company at Fort Story, Va. That’s where, VanHorn said, her father met her mother, Carol Sue Nichols, who was in college at William & Mary.

VanHorn has an older brother, Michael Sheetz of Los Angeles. Her father had four grandchildren, preceded in death by one of them, and a great-grandson.

VanHorn said her parents were married 32 years before separating.

“They ended up getting to be friends again,” she said. “My mom helped him out a lot recently. They had a very friendly relationship.”

In addition to being a lifelong ham radio operator, Sheetz was a woodworker, a musician and a singer.

“He had a lovely singing voice,” VanHorn said.

VanHorn remembers watching TV news with her dad, which she didn’t like. But after the news, he’d watch “The Muppet Show” with her.

“I could not have gotten a better dad,” said VanHorn, a mother of three. “I’m very grateful my kids got such a positive grandfather role. I think they learned a lot from him.”

Visitation for Sheetz will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Rusiewicz of Lower Burrell Funeral Home. Burial with military honors will be private at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.

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