For Mary, `stop' was a 4-letter word.

Byline: Bob Welch The Register-Guard

When friends and family members gather at 6 p.m. Monday at the University of Oregon's EMU Ballroom to remember Mary Hudzikiewicz, more than a few will relate to the words of her friend Carolyn Kortge.

"Mary knew how to make things happen. She motivated people. If she was relentless, it was always for the higher good."

Hudzikiewicz, 66, died July 18.

But her contribution to the world lives on in everything from the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in Eugene (she started it) to the Professional Women's Network of Oregon (she started it). From a local Red Hat Society group (she started it) to the Lane County chapter of the UO Alumni Association (she started it).

Seeing any trends here? Hudzikiewicz was one of those folks who made something from nothing. Who didn't hesitate to cajole others to join her cause. And who would keep pushing that cause until she could no longer push.

"She wanted to make a difference," Kortge says.

Look. See Mary. See her orchestrating the UO graduation for 27 years, the maestro with the red dress on who's keeping cool though she has 28 separate ceremonies to organize and a forecast for rain.

See her in the Santa costume, leading the white-elephant gift exchange for Zonta Club, a women's service organization, encouraging ruthless raiding of others' gifts to keep the spirit lively.

See her taking in the Yugoslavian exchange student and, through Committed Partners for Youth, mentoring the disabled girl for five months that became five years.

See her on the phone bending the ear of John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the largest voluntary health agency in the world, the American Cancer Society.

"I was amazed at what she did and how much she did," friend Jeannie Havercroft says.

She worked with the Assistance League, a philanthropic organization helping people. She helped with Looking Glass' tailgate auction. And was on the boards of Birth to Three and United Way.

"She had a habit of not being able to say no," says her husband, Joe. And of getting people around her to say yes.

"She had all sorts of sneaky ways of getting you involved," Havercroft says. "What made you follow her? Her spirit, her knowledge of so many things. She was an inspiration."

Take the Relay for Life event that raises money for the cancer society. It began in 1992 with six teams, nearly all of them representing - surprise, surprise - other organizations Hudzikiewicz was part of: the Daisy Ducks and the UO Alumni Association, for example.

`She just single-handedly said, `We're going to do this,' and we did it,' Havercroft says.

The event that started with six teams now draws nearly 200. It raised $650,000 last weekend.

Her zeal for service was rooted deeply in her past, by experiencing polio as a child and thus knowing the value of service; and by her mother, Mary, a Phi Beta Kappa-smart UO graduate in the '30s.

She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from UO, returning to be student activities adviser and, later, assistant dean of student life.

Go. Go. Go. That was Mary's style. "It wasn't uncommon for her to up and leave Joe and head off to watch the Ducks in a bowl game," Havercroft says.

The only thing that stopped her was her health. She overcame breast cancer, though what got her involved in fighting cancer was her mother's death because of it. And what killed her was liver failure.

`She was Bette Midler,' Kortge says. `She had this buoyancy. So much energy ... .'

Energy that will continue on in those she inspired along the way.

Voting continues until 8 a.m. Thursday to name the unnamed ridge in the Coburg Hills. Go to www.registerguard.com/vote-coburg-ridge. For non-Web types, phone [phone]. Nominations were published in Thursday's column.