'The kindest, smartest person': Elgin community mourns loss of dedicated mental health advocate

Joe Follrath joked about his wife's love of oatmeal raisin cookies and their 18-year-old cat, Chloe.

More than anything else, though, Karen Beyer loved helping others.

Beyer, 80, a pillar of the Elgin community and the former CEO of the Ecker Center for Mental Health, died Sunday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after a five-year battle with cancer.

“She was the kindest, smartest person,” Follrath said. “She always wanted to help people, especially people who often don't have the opportunity to get help.

“She'd go to work at 9 a.m., and her car would still be there at 9 p.m. She'd work on weekends. She was that dedicated.”

In addition to her husband of 15 years — someone she'd been friends with for nearly 40 years — Beyer is survived by her daughter, Jennifer Beyer Zielinski, stepchildren Tim Follrath and Hollee Koszewski, and seven grandchildren.

According to those who knew her best, Beyer also leaves behind generations of individuals she helped during a five-decade career in social work and mental health advocacy.

“She was an anchor for people here,” Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said. “She literally helped thousands of people in the community during her career.”

A native of Euclid, Ohio, Beyer earned a bachelor's degree from the Ohio State University and three master's degrees. A master of social work degree from Loyola University brought her to this area, where she spent 10 years as director of health and human services for the village of Hoffman Estates and eight years as the executive director at the Larkin Center.

For nearly 20 years, she worked at the Ecker Center to help reshape the conversation around mental health and eliminate the stigma toward people with mental illness.

“It's hard to put into words what she did for us,” said Alan Kirk, the longest-serving board member at the Ecker Center. “No one worked more hours than her. She was a strong, creative, passionate person.”

Beyer retired from the Ecker Center in 2019, two years after her initial cancer diagnosis. She continued working through her illness as a board member for the Elgin Area League of Women Voters and the Elgin Township Mental Health Board.

For all the local work accomplished by Beyer, she also became a noted figure on the national stage when she appeared before the Supreme Court in 1996 as part of the Jaffee vs. Redmond case to support privacy rights between therapists and patients.

Beyer was threatened with jail time for refusing to turn over her notes about counseling sessions with a Hoffman Estates police officer involved in a shooting. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Beyer and the protection of privacy rights.

“She worked every day trying to help people,” Beyer's daughter said. “She was soft-spoken, but she was a powerhouse.”