2005 Achiever of the Year: Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey of Colorado.

Accepting her award as the 2005 Achiever of the Year, Mary Mullarkey said, "I take my cue from the Beatles song 'I get by with a little help from my friends.' Actually," she laughed, "I need a lot of help." For someone who is the chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, that's a lot to admit.

Mullarkey was originally inspired by her mother, who worked as a legal secretary and court reporter and told great courtroom stories. After graduating from a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin, where she grew up, she decided to study law.

"It was culture shock going from a nurturing school to the large, competitive environment of Harvard Law. There were very few women in law school then: 22 out of 530 in my class. We were very conspicuous."

After graduation in 1968, she took a position in Washington, DC, working on federal water and power issues in the Interior Department. An unexpected opportunity came when President Nixon was elected. Nixon wanted to enforce a clause in federal contracts forbidding discrimination in employment. "I found myself working in employment and civil rights. It was exactly what I wanted to do."

She loved hiking and skiing, so when a chance to work at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Denver came up, she and her husband moved. "Going west was an adventure," she said. She later worked in the State Attorney General's office and as an advisor to Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. She also had a private practice focused mainly on employment discrimination.

In 1987, Mullarkey was called back to public service when she was appointed to Colorado's Supreme Court.

But along the road of this high-profile career, vague physical symptoms were cropping up. Her doctors could not explain them. She had numbness on the bottoms of her feet. The turning point came one day when she was ice skating. She kept falling over backwards and knew something was seriously wrong.

Mullarkey met her MS diagnosis in 1994 "with a combination of dread and relief. But of course the dread was bigger." Given her position, she felt a responsibility to tell her colleagues on the bench.

Despite her diagnosis,, in 1998 her fellow justices selected her to be chief justice, the first woman to serve in this role in Colorado. An emblem of achievement for anyone, it's even more so for someone coping with a chronic disease.

Although she didn't hide her MS from family, friends, and colleagues, it wasn't public knowledge either. But with time, her problems with walking became apparent. In 2002, a reporter put out a rumor that she was about to retire for health reasons. "To be singled out is both difficult and an opportunity," Mullarkey said, so for the first time, she spoke publicly about her MS. "I've been able to talk about how it impacts people in different ways, emphasizing that people can and do lead productive lives in spite of the obstacles," she added.

"I'm being honored for doing what I love to do and would be doing anyway," she said. She maintains a full caseload. Moreover, she remarked, "I've been in a position to help people. At present my efforts are focused on improving the Colorado court system to make it more efficient and responsive to changing societal demands."

She also knows that "by virtue of who I am, I bring attention to the issue of accessibility. Despite my mobility problems, I travel to speaking engagements. I plan the logistics and get assistance. People begin to realize that a simple handrail can make getting up on a podium possible for someone with an impairment."

She credits her family and friends, especially her husband and her grown son, for their unfaltering support. "My husband buttons the buttons when I can't," she said. She faithfully injects a disease-modifying drug and advises everyone to take advantage of the treatments that were not available when she was first diagnosed. Though she can no longer hike and ski, she lifts weights, swims, does water aerobics, and practices yoga.

Perhaps most important, Mullarkey said, "Living with MS has taught me you have to get over not wanting to ask for help. I calculate the dangers of doing nothing to be far more risky than not trying to achieve your dreams."

Rochelle Kraut is associate editor of this magazine.