Allen Chernack, born to Jack and Minnie Chernack on July 8, 1936 in Brooklyn, NY, died suddenly at home on Dec. 31, 2019, in Laguna Hills, CA. He is survived by his loving wife of 21 years, Kathy Barron, his son Mark, and his wife, Sara, and their son, David, of Los Angeles, CA; his son, Scott, of Hawthorne, CA; and his son, Glen, and his wife, Heather, and their daughter, Viva, of Sleepy Hollow, NY, and his former wife, Linda Josephson, of Van Nuys, CA. His two siblings, Sonny and Suzie, predeceased him. He is survived by his brother's wife, Rosslyn, and their son, Gary, of La Mirada, CA, his sister's children, Randi Sweeney, Mitch Mayon and Cari Anderson, and their children, Hannah and Leah Sweeney, and Ava Anderson, who all reside in the Seattle, WA, area.

Allen graduated from L.A. High, attended L.A. City College for two years, U.C. Berkeley for one semester, and finished his B.S. and Master's degrees in Engineering at USC. For a few years, he worked at most of the aerospace companies in L.A. He was proud to have tested valves for the lunar lander on the first moon mission. Aerospace contracts were notoriously unreliable, and Allen went to work for IBM, where he was technical support on a sales team and enjoyed working with clients across the country. In 1972, ambition led him to work for Howard Levin at the first company to implement leases for IBM mainframe computers. When Howard insisted he move to NYC in 1983, Allen declined and started his own company buying and selling mid-size computers and peripherals. When PCs took over the computer market, Allen closed his business and earned his teacher's credential in 1994. He taught adult education math in downtown L.A. until he retired in 2003.

Allen married Linda Wolf in 1959 after graduating from college, and their three sons were born in 1963, 1966, and 1970. They divorced in 1974. Allen did not marry again until he married Kathy Barron in 1998.

Allen's lifelong hobby was photography. He took several classes and went on many workshop trips with his mentor, Tom Morse, including visits to the California ghost town, Bodie, to Joshua Tree National Park, and the Big Sur coast. Upon retirement, his passion for photography deepened. An avid amateur photographer, he captured thousands of beautiful digital images, which he shared with family and friends on his SmugMug website.
Allen always liked to travel. Before he met Kathy, he took many solo trips across California, the Southwest, and to Mexico. He also enjoyed his work-related travel to all major U.S. cities, with three or more long stays every year in New York with his boss from '72 to '83, plus business trips to Germany and Wales. Travel became a true hobby when he retired, bought a small RV, which he and Kathy named GoVan, and they started spending many months each year on the road, seeing the small towns and beautiful National and State Parks across the USA and Canada. Allen, Kathy, their dog, Scruffy, (and dog Buddy for the first two trips) covered 140,000 miles in their 16 years of retirement together!

Allen loved his extended family and his dearest friends, Joe Behar and Lynn Stoller. The RV enabled him to visit many of them in their hometowns over the years. He repeatedly told Kathy stories about his aunts and uncles (and of course, his mom and dad) and what good people they all were.

A graveside service was held for Allen on January 12, 2020, at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, CA, followed by a luncheon at Factor's Famous Deli in Los Angeles. In place of flowers, it is requested that memorial donations be made to the Democratic National Committee.