ORINDA, Calif. (Nov. 24, 2015) — Joseph Pehanick Sr., owner of East Bay Tire Co. for 20-plus years, died Nov. 20 at age 86 after extended health problems.
Born in Scranton, Pa., Mr. Pehanick was the sixth of eight children of Mary Krake and Andrew Pehanick.
After attending Seattle University on a basketball scholarship, Mr. Pehanick was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets of the National Basketball Association. He played a few years with the Bullets and Scranton (Pa.) Miners before returning to the Pacific Northwest to take a job with Boeing Aircraft Co.
In 1959 he joined East Bay Tire, hired by his father-in-law and East Bay founder Joe Fuetsch; three years earlier Mr. Pehanick married Joel Ann Fuetsch.
In 1986, he bought the company, a Fairfield, Calif.-based wholesaler and commercial tire dealership, and as CEO helped build the company into an international wholesale operation, doing business in Asia, Europe and Australia in addition to North America.