Addressing all your most important questions and concerns

Question: Who is the woman the new Marshall building is named after?

Answer: As a journalism major, I eagerly await the opening of the Louise F. Marshall building, named for UA's first female professor. Marshall also founded the Marshall Foundation, a non-profit organization that donates 50 percent to 60 percent of its net revenue to the UA every year in the form of scholarship funds and assistance for projects.

Here's her story: Marshall was born in Denver and moved to Tucson at the turn of the century for health reasons. She completed her graduate studies at the UA, later became the UA's first female professor and taught Latin, English, French, Spanish and botany. She also served as the head of the ancient and modern languages department from 1901 to 1902.

Marshall was 36 when she met her husband Tom Marshall, a student in her plane geometry class. The couple married in 1904. In the early 1920s, they developed the block of businesses across from the university's main gate. Known as University Square, the modern-looking shops were instantly popular, and that business venture led to the formation of the Marshall Foundation in 1930.

You would think that's all there is to the story, but just after midnight on April 27, 1931, her husband Tom was shot four times with a pistol and died three weeks later. Marshall was charged with assault with intent to murder. After a controversial trial she was acquitted. She died alone in 1956.

Despite the controversy, her contributions live on. Over the past five years, UA has received $1.65 million from the Marshall Foundation, which earns all of its profits by leasing out building space to businesses on University Boulevard. With the exceptions of Chen's Cafe, Landmark Clothing and Shoes, Frog & Firkin and No Anchovies, all of the businesses along University pay rent to the 73-year-old foundation. Its total rental income was about $1.8 million in 2002.

The nearly $18 million Marshall building is due to open for the upcoming spring semester and will house the journalism department, the Near Eastern studies department, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the media arts department, the Center for Latin American Studies and the Committee on Judaic Studies, among other things. The ground floor is reserved for retail tenants, which will include the UofA Bookstore.

- Investigation by Detective Jill Holt

Do you have a question that is keeping you up tossing and turning at night? Send it to the campus detective! E-mail her at catcalls@wildcat.arizona.edu