A “gem of a woman,” as some describe Julie Foster, had the foresight decades ago to realize the importance of mental health and in her passing leaves behind gratitude and praise for her prescient work in several facets of the community.

Foster, co-founder of the Colorado Springs affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, died April 29 at age 89, in her apartment in the city’s first co-housing community that she and her late husband, Phil, helped create in the late 1990s.

She left this world unexpectedly, following a brief physical decline, according to her family.

In fact, Foster had planned to attend this year’s May 9 NAMIWalks, an annual fundraiser focusing on mental health and wellness at Panorama Park, as her 90^th birthday approached in June, leaders of the organization said.

Foster never retreated from being involved with the organization she started, said Lori Jarvis, who was the office’s executive director from 2012 to 2025.

“She never failed to show up for every NAMI event, to teach a class, to speak to family members about what it means to have a loved one with serious mental illness,” Jarvis said.

Foster and Stella Colby, both mothers of children who had mental illness, founded a resource and support group, the Pikes Peak Alliance for the Mentally Ill, in 1983 and became affiliated with the national and state NAMI groups.

“It was a really different time, when you think about what it meant to go out there and talk about mental health and mental illness and how it was something you had personal experience with,” said Kirk Woundy, who co-directs the local NAMI.

“People were not willing to talk about the challenges that came with mental illness, and there were a lot of people who endured those challenges in silence and fear. Julie Foster helped make it possible for people to find a community of others who understood those challenges, and what she did to start the conversation here has really snowballed over time.”

Sixteen years after its founding, the all-volunteer NAMI Colorado Springs shifted from offering informal support, networking and information sharing on mental illness to adopting educational materials developed by NAMI national.

Foster led the region’s first Family-to-Family flagship class in 1999 and was still teaching in 2013, when she also wrote the welcome letter for the Colorado Springs’ 30^th anniversary publication.

James “Jim” Foster, the oldest of three children of Julie and the late Phil Foster, said his mother “led from behind.”

“She wasn’t a big leader, she didn’t like to preside over things, but she had a big humble influence on the community in many ways,” he said.

Julie Fraser, her maiden name, was a civil service employee working on the decommissioning of Camp Hale at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs when she met her future husband. Julie and Phil married in 1958, and their children, James, Ronald and Sharon, were born in Colorado Springs. Phil predeceased her in December 2016.

Julie Foster was always involved in something, balancing her time between raising the kids, supporting her husband’s entrepreneurial work in real estate and aviation pursuits, and doing what she loved, James Foster said.

The couple had volunteered for the Patty Jewett Neighborhood Association, and Julie and Phil were instrumental in founding Casa Verde Commons, Colorado Springs’ first co-housing community. They worked behind-the-scenes beginning in 1997 on the vision and execution of the plan. The community opened in 2002 as a home for 67 adults, 15 young people, 12 dogs, eight cats and one lawnmower, according to news reports.

Tim Burke, who also was on the ground floor of the co-housing development and the Fosters’ neighbor, said Julie was sweet, smart and funny. After finding a stray kitten, she showed it around the neighborhood, telling people, “Surely, this kitten has a name. Surely this kitten has a home.” Julie decided to name the kitten “Shirley.”

In addition to being engaged in many organizations and projects, Julie also was a kind-hearted, generous woman, who gave of her time, talents and treasure, Burke said.

“She might have been understated, but she was certainly a leader,” he said.

Along with being remembered for bringing NAMI to Colorado Springs during a time when mental illness was very stigmatized and for supporting families that otherwise were shunned or judged, Julie Foster was “an older female runner back when there weren’t very many of those and it wasn’t popular as it is now to the same extent,” said her daughter, Sharon Greenbaum.

The Fosters’ involvement with the Pikes Peak Road Runners led the family to hold the title of the longest-running membership in the group.

“She was a kind, gentle, humble, selfless person,” Greenbaum said. “My mother has what we called the ‘happy gene’ – anywhere we go she’s going to make friends.”

A remembrance ceremony was held Monday. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date.