Friends, family, colleagues and students gathered Saturday at Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel at St. Edward’s University to remember Associate Communication Professor Marilyn Schultz.”Amazing Grace” and “White Coral Bells,” a song that gave Schultz inspiration at a time when she most needed it, a friend said, filled the packed chapel not far from where Schultz taught over the years. Schultz, a former NBC News correspondent who came to St. Edward’s in 2002 as an associate professor after spending 10 years teaching at the University of Texas, died after a brief illness Jan. 10 at St. David’s South Austin Hospital. She was 64. Fr. Lou Brusatti , dean of the School of Humanities, delivered the opening prayer and was the first to eulogize his friend and neighbor of seven years. “She spent her life seeking God’s righteousness and making it happen in the here and now,” Brusatti said.Brusatti, remembered Schultz as entertaining and energetic, but also argumentative and persistent, even while facing death.”I woke up Monday morning after a long Sunday vigil at her hospital bedside; a vigil with all of her colleagues from the Communication Department and other members of the St. Edward’s community, the Brothers of the Holy Cross and her friends,” Brusatti said. “Of course, she wanted none of us to be there.”Brusatti said that Schultz was intensely focused and could be either wonderfully entertaining or argumentative, depending on the day. Always, he said, Schultz made everyone feel welcome.”At the end of the day, we could always give a hug and have a drink,” Brusatti said.He added that Schultz won a lot of their arguments. She strongly supported the creation of the Journalism Minor, he said. The veteran broadcast journalist who created “Father Basil Moreau: A Legacy of Hope” also consistently pushed for more technology, he added, which led to a classroom in Trustee Hall that has an Apple computer at every seat.Most recently, Schultz helped win administrative approval for Hilltop Views to begin publishing an online edition.Courtney Simon, a friend of Schultz’s since the two were in the theater program at Indiana University, spoke fondly of Schultz’s infectious personality.”Indiana University in the mid-60s seemed like kind of a tame place until I met Marilyn,” Simon said. “Tame was not a word that applied. She was brave, she was reckless, she was willing to break the rules and no wonder  all of us were falling all over each other to try to be her friend because she did all the things that we were too chicken to try.”Schultz and Simon went to New York, where Schultz began her career as a production assistant for Chet Huntley and David Brinkley near the end of the Huntley-Brinkley Report’s 15-year run on NBC. Schultz eventually returned to Indiana for her graduate degrees.Before receiving those degrees, Schultz led the plaintiffs in a gender discrimination lawsuit against NBC in the 1970s. The case went on for seven years before an out-of-court settlement was reached.Simon said that Schultz always fought for what she thought was right and was always authentic in her pursuits. “I counted on her to have no patience for people who were pompous,” Simon said. “Marilyn was the antithesis of that. There was not a phony bone in her body.”After the memorial service, many headed to the Maloney Room for a reception. There, those who knew Schultz exchanged their favorite stories about the times when Schultz “disciplined them,” or the many times when Schultz confused the contacts in her iPhone and called the wrong person, or what it was like to work down the hall from Schultz. In the background, a slideshow featuring photos of Schultz, almost always surrounded by her friends, was shown, with every picture featuring Schultz displaying a wide-eyed grin.Students remembered Schultz for her “wicked sense of humor.””She was just really funny and really energetic, and even when she wasn’t energetic, she was energetic,” senior Rebecca Robinson said.Senior Mackenzie Jenkins, who had Schultz as an academic advisor and as a professor for a number of classes, said that she will remember Schultz for being easily approachable and quirky.”My favorite memory is having dinner at her house,” Jenkins said. “She had just got two exactly identical 52-inch screen TVs, and she had been bragging to us about them in our class. I’m pretty sure that the only reason she invited us over was to show off her new TVs.”Josh Brown, who graduated May 2009, said that he remembers Schultz for her brutal honesty and for the way she cared for all of her students.”She would cross all your T’s and dot all of your I’s for you,” Brown said.Associate Professor of Humanities Kelley Coblentz-Bautch echoed the sentiment of Schultz’s students.”What has always intrigued me about Marilyn was her incredible sense of humor and her deep spiritual life as well,” Coblentz-Bautch said. “She has truly been a light for so many at the St. Edward’s University campus and for me, personally.”Simon said that she believes Schultz was meant to teach because teaching helped Schultz combine her talents to create something that would last long after Schultz was gone.Still, Simon said she did not expect Schultz to be gone so suddenly.”How could someone so alive suddenly not be?” Simon said. “But, maybe, when you burn as hard and as bright as she did, you can’t last as long. It takes too much out of you. And all the rest of us can do is thank our lucky stars that we got to go along for part of the ride.”