<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><div>Idaho lost a hero today . . .</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of the <i>Idaho Statesman</i> at:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article130552954.html">http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article130552954.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>An absolute giant in the fight for human rights.” Leaders, friends remember Marilyn Shuler</b></span></p></div><div><br></div><div>Marilyn Shuler, a longtime human rights leader and director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission for 20 years, died at a Boise hospital early Friday morning. She was 77.</div><div><br></div><div>Her grandson, Johnny Shuler, said she died “surrounded by her two sons and their families in peace, good spirits and without pain.”</div><div><br></div><div>Shuler spent her final day “speaking, laughing and reminiscing,” even enjoying a few sips of merlot with the more than 30 friends who visited her in the hospital, her grandson said.</div><div><br></div><div>She wanted everyone to rest assured that she truly felt that this was the right timing for her death and that she was not scared to face the next frontier,” Johnny Shuler in a statement.</div><div><br></div><div>“Thank you to everyone who kept her in her prayers and sent her lovely messages; those who wrote emails had them read to her out loud. She left the world with a profound impact on everyone she met, and we as her family hope that her inspiring legacy will continue through each and every one of you,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>Linda Goodman, administrator of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, said Shuler attended the 2017 Martin Luther King celebration at the Idaho Statehouse as recently as Jan. 16 to help hand out brochures.</div><div><br></div><div>“She wouldn’t have missed it,” Goodman said. “Marilyn was so fiercely independent. She always did things her way until the very end.”</div><div><br></div><div>Goodman, whom Shuler hired for the commission in 1988, called Shuler a mentor and “a wonderful person who gave so much to so many.”</div><div><br></div><div>And she was tough. Shuler contacted polio as a young girl when she was in Catholic school.</div><div><br></div><div>“One story Marilyn loved to share was about the nuns at school,” said Goodman. “They were strict. They told her, ‘You might have polio, but you’re not going to get special treatment.’”</div><div><br></div><div>“They let her take the elevator, but that was it,” said Goodman. “Those experiences made her the fighter she was. They empowered her and she learned the notion of wanting to empower others.”</div><div><br></div><div>Lisa Uhlmann co-founded the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial with Shuler in 2002. Uhlmann called her friend “a guiding light for human rights, a hero in the state of Idaho.”</div><div><br></div><div>“Marilyn taught all of us to lead the good fight for equality and against discrimination,” said Uhlmann. “She will be terribly missed. She meant the world to all of us and this leaves a void in all of our lives.”</div></div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" </span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>