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.
While Hoefler was the first to use "Silicon Valley" in journalism, he did not coin the phrase, which had been in use for some time. For example, a May 1970 advertisement in the Peninsula Times Tribune described a Palo Alto company that "helps production people in Silicon Valley."[1]