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Patti Kaufmann, who died Friday at 48, “was an absolute inspiration to everyone who knew her,” said Joni Hart, campaign director of Light The Night walk, of which Kaufmann was volunteer founder.

Kaufmann died of lung problems, an outgrowth of the lymphoma she had battled for 10 years.

Light The Night was first held nine years ago when 200 people showed up to walk a few blocks in Cherry Creek North. The walk raised $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Rocky Mountain chapter.

Last fall, 4,300 walked more than 2 miles around Washington Park and raised $750,000. Despite her failing health, Kaufmann led the walk.

The walks are held by all 68 chapters of the organization and Kaufmann “was the driving force” behind the Denver walk, said Rebecca Russell, executive director of the Rocky Mountain chapter.

“She never missed a walk and her family was involved, either in walking or financially,” said Russell, who lives in Highlands Ranch.

“She was relentless in raising funds,” Hart said. “But she was a caregiver as well, visiting patients to let them know they had some support.”

Patricia Robinson was born in Denver on May 15, 1960, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and did social work at National Jewish Hospital and Youth Benefit Services Inc., where she counseled unwed mothers.

She married Steve Kaufmann on Oct. 1, 1988.

For 16 years she worked at Robinson Dairy, a company owned by her father, Eddie Robinson, and his brother, Dick Robinson. They sold the company nine years ago.

A fifth-generation family member in the company, Kaufmann worked in the production facility, as sales representative in Colorado Springs, credit manager, human resources director and corporate secretary.

Kaufmann “came through a bone marrow transplant,” said her father, and then got involved with the annual walks.

“She was a good speaker and an inspiration,” and the first one on the scene when friends or family got a cancer diagnosis, Eddie Robinson said. He and his daughter were co-chairs of the first event.

In addition to her father and husband, Kaufmann is survived by her mother, Dana Robinson of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; two sisters, Debra Robinson of Aurora and Emily Gorelik of Long Grove, Ill.; her stepmother, Susan Robinson; two stepbrothers: Greg Geller and Jeff Geller, both of Denver; and a stepsister, Missy Sharman of Boulder.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com

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Other Deaths

Archie R. McCardell, 81, who headed International Harvester during a pivotal 172-day labor strike in 1979, died Friday in Casper, said his daughter, Laurie McCardell.

McCardell joined Chicago-based International Harvester as president in 1977 and became chief executive a few months later. International Harvester posted record earnings of nearly $400 million in 1979 but began struggling when 35,000 employees represented by the United Auto Workers walked out Nov. 1 of that year. A settlement wasn’t reached until April 1980.

International Harvester lost millions during the strike. McCardell resigned in May 1982.

Les Crane, 74, called the “bad boy of late-night television” when he vied for ratings against talk-show king Johnny Carson in the mid-1960s, died Sunday at Marin General Hospital north of San Francisco.

Crane was host of a popular radio call-in show in San Francisco in 1964 when ABC tapped him for “The Les Crane Show.” Both serious and witty, it was touted as combining the approaches of Jack Paar, Mike Wallace and David Susskind, and featured conversations with major news figures such as Malcolm X and George Wallace, as well as lighter chitchat with movie stars.

The show fizzled, but in 1984 Crane founded a software company that made him a multimillionaire, largely from the sales of the game “Chessmaster” and a typing tutorial called “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.”