The greater Pikes Peak region lost a true leader with a heart and a vision last week, with the passing of Julie Foster at age 89.

Foster was decades ahead of her time with her mission to address mental health, years before phrases like “mental health awareness” became part of our culture and the community’s lexicon.

She co-founded the Colorado Springs affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and until her sudden decline in health before her death, she was still so involved in NAMI she was planning, just shy of the age of 90, to attend Saturday’s NAMIWalks annual fundraiser at Panorama Park.

Kirk Woundy, co-director of the local NAMI, summed up the groundbreaking role Foster played in the 1980s in an interview with The Gazette. Back then, people didn’t talk about it due to the stigma surrounding mental illness. As a result, those afflicted suffered in silence and fear, as did their loved ones.

“Julie Foster helped make it possible for people to find a community of others who understood those challenges,” Woundy told The Gazette, “And what she did to start the conversation here has really snowballed over time.”

Foster was known in the community for her humble servant leadership. She sacrificed a visible presence out front for the influence and leadership she could provide “from behind,” as her eldest son Jim put it to The Gazette.

For nearly 15 years Foster led the region’s first family-to-family flagship class. She wrote the welcome letter for the Colorado Springs’ 30th-anniversary publication. 

She and her entrepreneur husband Phil founded Casa Verde Commons, Colorado Springs’ first co-housing community, where she lived until her death. It opened in 2002 as a home for 67 adults, 15 young people, 12 dogs and eight cats. 

She was a trailblazing, avid female runner when the hobby wasn’t as popular among women, leading her family to the honor of longest-running membership with the Pikes Peak Road Runners.

And she was a loving wife and mother to three children.

“She might have been understated, but she was certainly a leader,” Tim Burke, Foster’s neighbor in the co-housing community, told The Gazette. Burke, who also was on the ground floor of the co-housing development and the Fosters’ neighbor, said Foster 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.” Foster decided to name the kitten “Shirley.”

“She was a kind, gentle, humble, selfless person,” recalled her daughter, Sharon Greenbaum. 

“My mother has what we called the ‘happy gene’ — anywhere we go she’s going to make friends.”

She also made a difference — a great stride — for awareness and care of mental illness.

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