TORRANCE, Calif. –

It was reported by a Bobit Business Media publication and other news outlets that the company’s founder and chairman Ed Bobit died Sunday. He was 86.

The company’s flagship publication, Automotive Fleet, reported that Bobit “died peacefully in his sleep,” and is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Bobit began Automotive Fleet in 1961, and his company would eventually expand to include more than 20 industry publications, according to the company's website.

He also began what is considered to be the remarketing industry’s first professional conference, the Conference of Automotive Remarketing, as his company began rolling out business-to-business trade shows in the 1980s, the site indicated.

“Bobit was a man of outsize pleasures, but none more than his work and family, which were usually one and the same. Ed’s son Ty runs the company (Ed had turned over the CEO mantle to Ty in 2007) and his eldest grandson Blake joined the company in 2010.  Ed loved the fleet business and counted among his closest friends those he first met through the business,” the Automotive Fleet story indicated.

The National Auto Auction Association was among those in the industry offering condolences: “The National Auto Auction Association extends its deepest sympathy to the Bobit family and friends.”