As I have said, I had no idea the effect Mrs. Ecker had on my life until after she passed. Any casual observer of my life could see it, but not me. In my sophomore year at Washington, I tried unsuccessfully to get into Dr. McMann's third-hour philosophy class. Mrs. Ecker, who knew my mom as a teacher at Wash and coached my sister in cheerleading, suggested that I take her first-hour journalism class by tape. So great was her love and concern for journalism that she offered it every period, to anyone. So I took it, by Walkman, with a girl who is an important friend to this day. From there, Mrs. Ecker kept pushing me. The next year, I became arts/entertainment editor. She always encouraged me to do interesting stories and gave me freedom to pursue the ones that I wanted. The year after that I was news editor and editor in chief, even though I had pushed hard to be co-editor. She had a way of seeing more from me than I saw from myself. As I was getting ready to go to Northwestern to study journalism, she told me I'd be the editor of the paper there. “Who else would it be?” she said. Well, I didn't make that. In fact, I nearly got kicked out of school for bad grades. But I'm still in newspapers 20 years later. I can absolutely say that I am the editor I am because of her. I still have the friendships I made at the Surveyor and on Academic Decathlon. I'm sorry I never got a chance to tell her that. But I think she, like everyone else besides me, knew. To her family: I am so sorry for your loss. I only ever knew her as a teacher, even though she talked all the time about her children and their children. I was so fortunate to have had her those 2 odd years; you are dealing with losing a wonderful mother, grandmother, sister, friend. My thoughts are with you. Judy, Class of 1993