Mary Elizabeth Kopko 1958 - 2022
Mary Elizabeth Kopko (née Bonte) passed away on March 30, 2022, with family at her side.
She is survived by her husband of 40 years, Frederick Henry Kopko, Jr., and their children, Elizabeth Mary Kopko (and her husband Peter), Thomas Frederick Kopko (and his wife Andrea), and Catherine Martha Kopko, and adored granddaughter, Mirabell Elizabeth Kopko. She is also survived by many other family members and dear friends who will forever cherish her memory.
Born in Moline, Illinois, to the late Kenneth and Mary Bonte, Mary Beth graduated from Alleman High School in 1976 where she earned varsity letters in tennis, softball, and basketball and was named Quad-City Athlete of the Year. She went on to receive a B.A., magna cum laude, in 1980 from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and a J.D., magna cum laude, in 1983 from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, where she was an editor of the Law Review.
After law school, Mary Beth joined the Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF) to represent people living in poverty in and around Chicago. While at LAF, she successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on behalf of surviving family members deprived of certain disability benefits under the Social Security Act. See Marcus v. Sullivan, 926 F.2d 604 (7th Cir. 1991). In 1995, she was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation. Following years of service at LAF (which included serving as its union President), Mary Beth became a partner at McBreen & Kopko LLP, a multi-state law firm based in Chicago, where she specialized in social security disability and supplemental security income cases and other general appellate work. In connection with Governor Ryan's moratorium on capital punishment in Illinois back in January 2000, she joined a task force formed to examine the death penalty process in Illinois and make specific recommendations to the Office of the Governor. During that time, she also represented death row inmates in post-conviction appeals.
In 1986, Mary Beth and her husband Fred bought the Kenwood home built in 1903 for Julius Rosenwald, then Chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, a founder of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and a renowned philanthropist. In recognition of that historic restoration, Mary Beth and Fred received a preservation award from the Hyde Park Historical Society in 1989.
Mary Beth was an active member of her community and longtime parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Chicago, where she was a former president of the School Board, a founding member of the Endowment Committee and a co-founder of the School's inaugural Pre-Kindergarten program. For the last 12 years, she resided with her husband Fred at their Caribbean home on the United States Virgin Island of Saint Thomas. There, she founded Caribbean Rose, a non-profit organization that supports, among other things, the annual Virgin Island Billfish Tournament for Haiti and the Virgin Island Jaguars Small Fry Basketball Franchise. She was a caring person, devoted wife, selfless mother, and generous friend, always thinking of others first. To know her was to love her, and to be loved by her was a gift.
Memorial donations may be made on Mary Beth's behalf to the Ensemble Scolaire Pere Basile Moreau Secondary School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, or to another charity of one's choice to help those less fortunate.