Donald C. Hoefler (October 3, 1922 – April 15, 1986) was an American journalist, best known for using the term "Silicon Valley" for the first time in a news story.
His friend Ralph Vaerst suggested the term for a series of articles entitled "Silicon Valley, USA" in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News, starting on January 11, 1971.
For example, a May 1970 advertisement in the Peninsula Times Tribune described a Palo Alto company that "helps production people in Silicon Valley.
[2] From the mid-1970s until his death in 1986, Hoefler published a newsletter called "Microelectronics News," which was the definitive "tabloid" of the emerging American semiconductor industry but was also viewed as a "gossip sheet" by some.
He subsequently worked as a reporter for Fairchild Publications, owner of Electronic News, and then held editorial positions with RCA Corp. and McGraw Hill.