Mike Danchak was living proof that with enough hard work, dreams do come true.

Danchak, who died on Monday at age 69, resurrected the Angela Triplex Theatre, located in his hometown of Coaldale, from a state of disrepair and turned it into a modern theater.Along the way, he provided families in the Panther Valley with a much-needed activity, and accomplishing a goal he set as a teenager.“It was his dream his entire life, from the day he walked in as an usher, even before that,” his wife, Deb, recalled this week.The Angela was where Danchak would develop a lifelong love of the movies. Deb Danchak recalled her husband’s tales from his youth at the Angela, how he longed to be an usher, then quickly set his eye on running the projector.“That was boring to him. After the movie started, there was nothing for him to do. So he worked the projector,” she said.As a young man he managed and leased a number of theaters, including the Mahoning Drive-In. His first job running a theater was the Country View Drive-in in Barnesville, when he was 17.As he told the Times News in 2014, the first time he tried to buy the shuttered property he was outbid, but ultimately prevailed when he bought it in 1993.“I was born in Coaldale and had worked at the Angela as a projectionist since I was 15,” he said.“To get a chance to buy it, but not be able to do it. I was heartbroken.”To say the theater was a fixer-upper would be an understatement, but Danchak was undeterred.The roof had caved in. The boiler needed to be replaced. There were 700 moldy seats that had to be disposed of.Danchak, recruiting some relatives, did the work himself, often without plans.His craftsmanship earned him the nickname MikeGyver.He drew upon his contacts in the movie industry to get everything he needed to open his new theater, his son, Mike Danchak Jr., recalled.He also preserved the details that made the Angela special — light fixtures in the lobby, and the grand Angela sign.“He would stand in here, and he would see it happening. He could picture it happening, and that’s what kept him going. He told me, ‘I know it’s going to open some day’ and it did,” Deb Danchak recalled.He converted the massive theater into three smaller auditoriums, to handle more films.In the largest one, he hand-built stadium seating, something that was just becoming popular in multiplexes at the time.The effort that was put into the theater wasn’t lost on the community.“It’s amazing the transformation he did,” his friend Todd Weiss, a Coaldale police officer, said.Joe Krushinsky, who worked with Danchak on the American Cancer Society Telethon, praised him for his determination.“He was a man with a vision and a structure that was really in beyond bad shape. When a lot of people kind of doubted the outcome, and even snickered about it, he saw it through, and put together a gem up there.”Opening night came in 1997. “Titanic” was the film, and the theater was sold out.Personally, he hated violent movies, favoring comedies and inspirational tales that the whole family could enjoy.He was also known as a kind father of six children, and 22 grandchildren.His son, Michael Jr., has been helping run the theater recently.Danchak gave families in the Panther Valley a place to watch the latest movies, as well as classics.Deb Danchak says she wants to continue to provide that service, because it’s what Mike would have wanted.“I’m going to try to keep it open as long as I can, because this was his dream, and to close it would be really sad. And I know the people in the area would miss it,” she said.