The PR industry lost a pioneer this week as Pat Tobin passed away after a battle with cancer. She was 65 years old.

Co-founder of the National Black Public Relations Society, Tobin worked in local television before starting her firm, Tobin & Associates, in 1983. Over the years her client roster included Spike Lee, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr..

Writes Jocelyn Stewart in the LA Times, 'Without the Hollywood pretense -- the air kisses, the "Have your people call my people' -- Tobin brought people together: entertainers with their audiences, sellers with buyers, communities in need with those possessing cash."