If you’ve bought a car in Sacramento in the past half-century or so, there’s a decent chance you shopped at a dealership owned by the Niello family. Now the patriarch of the Niello automobile family has died. Richard Niello Sr., who brought the company to Sacramento after its founding in San Francisco, died at home Saturday.

He was 10 days shy of his 100th birthday. “We were all hopeful he would make it to 100,” said his son Rick Niello, who is president of The Niello Co. His father had no specific health issues but “he just wore out,” he said. Niello’s brother Roger announced their father’s passing on Twitter.