The Island County coroner has ruled that a 78-year-old Oak Harbor man who was found on the side of a Central Whidbey road Feb. 16 died from a fall from his bicycle.

Coroner Robert Bishop said the cause of Denton Palmer’s death was blunt force trauma to the head and trunk due to a fall while on a bicycle.

Palmer, a well-known Oak Harbor resident and bike enthusiast, was found along Morris Road lying next to his bicycle on the afternoon of Feb. 16. He was transported to Whidbey General Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Bishop said an autopsy was performed to rule out the possibility that Palmer had been struck by a vehicle.

Palmer, a former superintendent of the Turlock, Calif., school district, retired in Oak Harbor with his wife, Eva, in 1992. In recent years he became a bike enthusiast and was known to take trips of 60 miles.