Posts on a blog set up in early August by the Hoffman family were tough to read. Right up until the end, the family was filled with hope that Daniel S. Hoffman, a lawyer who owned part of the Denver Nuggets and once represented Michael Jackson, would recover from his stroke.

“His death will touch many people as did his life. Arrangements will be posted here as soon as they are made. In lieu of flowers please make donations to the Strumm College of Law at the University of Denver. Thank you all for your love and support.”

Hoffman was 78.

“He literally was the best there was,” attorney Jim Lyons tells The Denver Post. “There was Dan Hoffman and then there was everyone else.”

After graduating from the University of Denver’s law school, Hoffman was named Denver’s manager of safety in 1963, the youngest-ever official to hold the job, which included taking on a thievery ring inside the Denver Police Department.

In 1965, he marched in Alabama with Martin Luther King Jr., from Selma to Montgomery, and then three years later directed Senator Robert Kennedy’s Democratic presidential campaign in Colorado, later joining famous protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. From 1978 to 1984, he was dean of DU’s School of Law. He was also a president of the Colorado Bar Association and the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, writes the Denver Business Journal.

Governor Bill Ritter calls Hoffman “a remarkable attorney, a courageous leader and a dear friend. Colorado is a better place because of his countless contributions. He will be missed by many.”