Boiseans honor longtime human rights leader Marilyn Shuler

Hundreds of people gathered to remember and celebrate the life of Marilyn Shuler, who was for 20 years the director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission. The service was Sunday at Boise State University.

Shuler became the director in 1978. “Piece by piece, she laid the building blocks for an Idaho that learned to welcome and celebrate diversity under her watch,” said Leslie Goddard, who was director after Shuler.

Shuler was also co-founder of the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, and was director and president of the Wasmuth Center for Human Rights in Boise. She died Feb. 3 at age 77.

“Marilyn Shuler lived an intentional life,” said Marcia Franklin, a close friend and producer and host at Idaho Public Television, which moderated the service. “When you cheated death at age 10 (from polio), you live life fully.”

In the days before Shuler’s death, Franklin queried Shuler about how she hoped to be remembered. Quoting Shuler, she said, “I think we all want to be remembered as a person that left the earth a little better than we found it ... I hope I’ve given more than I’ve taken.”

Franklin said, “Marilyn, you gave much more than you took. ... Marilyn gave us her breath. She gave us her soul. In doing so, she lives on in all of us.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2017 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Boiseans honor longtime human rights leader Marilyn Shuler."