Idaho human rights leader Marilyn Shuler dies at 77
BOISE – 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.
Her grandson, Johnny Shuler, said she died “surrounded by her two sons and their families in peace, good spirits and without pain,” the Idaho Statesman reported.
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.
“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 said in a statement.
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.”
“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.”
Shuler’s accomplishments and service to her community were wide-ranging, including leading the Idaho Human Rights Commission for two decades and serving on numerous boards, including the Boise School Board and the City Club of Boise. She was part of the YWCA nontuition kindergarten program for low-income children and also volunteered for several years as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Judicial Court.
Shuler served on the advisory board of the College of Public Affairs at Boise State University and on the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy and was a community representative on the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Shuler held degrees from the University of Utah and Boise State and received honorary doctorates from Boise State and the University of Idaho.
Former Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus called her an Idaho “champion” and “moral compass.”
“Her death is a huge loss for all Idahoans committed to the cause of human rights, but I take heart in knowing that Marilyn’s message to us will continue to be, as it always has been, simple and profound – fight on, do the right thing and be courageous in pushing back against hatred and bigotry,” Andrus said in a statement.
In a 2009 Statesman profile of Shuler by Katherine Jones, Shuler talked about her mission.
“I am horrendously bothered by the disparity between rich and poor, both in the United States and throughout the world. It makes me ill. So many people live on just a dollar a day; children are hungry. It’s shameful. It’s not right. If all of us did just a little bit, we could turn it around,” she said.
Shuler shared the story of contracting polio as a young girl, a condition that compromised her health and made it necessary for her to use a wheelchair for the last part of her life. Still, she continued to do her work and be a model for those who admired her.
“I am happy. I don’t feel sorry for myself one bit,” she said in the 2009 interview. “I have a very full life: family, friends – who could ask for more? You could spend your life feeling sorry for yourself, but why would you do that? Where’s the good?”
Funeral arrangements for Shuler are pending.