Top Stories Oakland

Bernhard “Bernie” Hoffacker, the founder of Palo Alto Bicycles and a longtime co-owner of Palo Alto Sport and Toy World, died Dec. 5 at Stanford Hospital. He was 92.

Hoffacker worked with legends of the sporting world and helped build a family business that has endured for decades and become part of the Palo Alto fabric.

A 1934 graduate of Palo Alto High School, Hoffacker was a crack athlete and was inducted into Menlo College’s Athletic Hall of Fame. In a minor-league baseball stint with the San Francisco Seals, he played alongside seven-time All-Star Dom DiMaggio, who died in May at 92.

According to family members, Hoffacker also regularly worked out with baseball legend Ty Cobb.

In the 1940s, Bernie Hoffacker and his brother, Ed, took over the Palo Alto Sport and Toy Shop from their father, Ed Hoffacker, Sr. During World War II, when bicycles were in high demand, he worked double-shifts at the shop repairing people’s bikes and maintained the U.S. Postal Service’s local fleet of delivery bicycles, according to a biography provided by the family.

Bernie Hoffacker branched out from the family business in 1973, starting Palo Alto Bicycles on University Avenue. His two sons, Bud and Neal, worked for him and eventually took over the store, which they now own.

While working for their father, Bud and Neal Hoffacker worked to build bicycle components and soon spun off Avocet, Inc., credited with developing and selling the first

electronic cyclometer.

Also in the 1970s, according to the biography, Palo Alto Bicycles sponsored a cycling team that included the young Greg LeMond, who went on to become the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986.

Hoffacker is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marjorie Hoffacker of Palo Alto; daughter Lyle Caudillo of Portola Valley; his sons Bernhard (Bud) Hoffacker of Woodside, Neal Hoffacker of Portola Valley, and Ronnie Hoffacker of Santa Cruz; four granddaughters, three grandsons and three great granddaughters.

A memorial mass is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 751 Waverley St., Palo Alto.