For nearly 30 years, there has been one sound that bicycle riders on Iowa’s Annual RAGBRAI ride had become familiar with, as Paul Bernhard, aka “Mr. Pork Chop,” heralded the hungry to his bus.
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That nearly seven-second long call was silenced on Wednesday, as 88-year-old Bernhard passed away at Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona from complications of pneumonia. Bernhard’s family supported his vision all the way, even helping him with his hard-to-miss mode of transportation for the annual late-July ride.
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His family continued to support him in the last several years, running his operation as he was unable to tend to it himself. Funeral services for Bernhard will be 10:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 21, at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bancroft.