Bernard Donald Leitner
Sept. 30, 1927-June 14, 2014
Windsor, California
Submitted by Patricia Leitner

Bernard Leitner, age 86, a 53-year resident of Palo Alto, died June 14, 2014.

He was born September 30, 1927, growing up in Wayzata, Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota, Bernie fell in with a crowd of sci-fi fans, studied physics and also fell for Jane Tynan. The two married in 1951.

Bernie's work as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed-Martin took the family from the island of Oahu, to a year exploring Europe, then to Palo Alto, California, where Bernie and Jane settled in for the next 50 years. While working in aeronautics, Bernie earned a master's degree in Applied Mathematics at Santa Clara University. Towards the end of his career he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope team.

An outdoor enthusiast, Bernie bicycled the California coast, across the Sierra mountains and the Nevada desert. He hiked across Hawaiian volcanoes, through Kings Canyon and up to the Continental Divide. Together, Bernie and Jane traveled the globe from New Zealand to Greenland.

Bernie died at his home in Windsor, California. He is survived by his wife, Jane; his son and daughter-in-law, Kam and Valerie; his daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and Daniel; and his grandson, Kyle. Bernie's warmth, humor, intelligence, friendship, his love and the spark that is him will be forever missed.