opened  its  doors,  and  it  sent 
Out  one  graduate  that  first  year — Isabell  L. 
Eckles,  who  was  to  become  State  Superintend- 
ent of  Public  Instruction  in  New  Mexico.

For  17  years  M.  R.  Koehler  directed  the 
Silver  City  school,  whose  fame  extended  far 
beyond  the  Territorial  limits.

In  1907  she  resigned  from  that  position  to 
become  the  business  associate  of  Elizabeth 
C.  T.  Warren,  who  had  added  contracting  to 
her  other  activities.  Miss  Koehler  learned  with 
Mrs.  Warren  the  exactions  of  concrete,  a new 
and  little  understood  form  of  construction  in

that  part  of  New  Mexico.  It  was  she  who 
personally  superintended  the  laying  of  these 
sidewalks,  which  set  a new  standard  in  dur- 
ability.

She  was  46  when  she  undertook  this  new 
activity,  and  her  success  in  the  contracting 
business — in  which  she  advanced  from  side- 
walks to  building  construction — testifies  to  the 
virility  of  her  mind,  the  ability  to  keep  on 
learning,  which  is  the  proof  of  educational 
power.

In  1916  she  married  Judge  Frank  J.  Wright, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  most  highly 
respected  attorneys  in  Silver  City.  She  retired 
from  business,  but  rejoined  the  Warren  activi- 
ties 10  years  later  when  the  judge  died.

She  died  in  1949  after  a lifetime  of  achieve- 
ments that  have  earned  her  a niche  in  New 
Mexico’s  Hall  of  Fame.