Stephen Barry Byer

Service : Friday, January 10th at 12:15 pm
Service Location: Shalom Chapel Service
Shalom Memorial Funeral Home
1700 West Rand Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Interment:
Shalom Memorial Park
1700 W. Rand Road
Arlington Heights

Shiva Information

The family will receive condolences on Saturday, January 11, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, at Saint John’s on the Lake, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will sit shiva on Monday, January 13, 2025, from 4:00 pm to 8:30 pm, at the home of Matthew and Susan Byer, Westport, Connecticut, with a minyan service at 6:30 pm.

Contributions
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ALS Worldwide at http://www.alsworldwide.org, a research and advocacy organization founded by Stephen and Barbara and dedicated to supporting ALS patients and their families, or to a charity of your choice.

Stephen Barry Byer, 82, passed away quietly, surrounded by his family in the early morning of January 7, 2025. Steve was born to David and Blossom Byer on April 3, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois.

Steve lived an eclectic life and loved to tell the stories of his life, his family, and his experiences. He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, with the sons of people who may or may not have been part of the Chicago mafia. He took a road trip to New Orleans while in college and narrowly escaped a burning fraternity house. He met many people of fame – some he liked and some he didn’t. He wrote a book about working for Hugh Hefner that caused a bit of a stir. He started a museum devoted to his personal collection of fine art, decorative art, antiquarian books and manuscripts, and minerals and beetles. He self-taught his way to becoming a global expert of all the leading therapies for ALS, attending and speaking at ALS medical conferences around the world. He had five children and nine grandchildren of whom he was immensely proud. Steve loved his wife and their travels together around the world. His stories made us smile, feel proud, groan, and shake our heads – sometimes all at the same time. While Steve never spoke about his life experiences as being more than just his stories, they spanned decades and never ceased to amaze his family and friends.

Steve met his beloved Barbara while they were attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he very smoothly offered her a bite of an apple and they were soon married in 1964 in Evanston, Illinois, foreshadowing a much later location for their lives together. While in college, Steve’s studies included fine art, journalism, and marketing, all of which would be critical in shaping his many careers to come. Leaving college after three years of classes, Steve never apologized or cared that he didn’t have a degree – he was determined to excel through what he knew, his ability to figure out what he didn’t, and his sense of determination and grit.

Steve’s professional career began in advertising, included executive marketing roles at LOOK Magazine and Playboy Enterprises, and founded two companies, Byer Intermark and Stephen Byer and Associates, that specialized in the emerging field of direct response marketing. The love of fine art that Steve discovered in college found its expression as a lifelong collector of fine and decorative art, as co-founder with Barbara of the Byer Museum of the Arts (Evanston, Illinois), in the evolution of his professional career as president of Dyanson Corporation and Circle Fine Art Corporation, and, ultimately, as a publisher and dealer of fine art.

When Steve and Barbara’s son Benjamin was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (“ALS”) in 2002, Steve was devastated and shifted his focus from art and business to finding something that might help his son. Steve made it his mission to become expert in the treatments and therapies available to ALS patients – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and was globally regarded by physicians and researchers alike as one of the most knowledgeable individuals on ALS therapies and palliative treatment for ALS patients. Even though he never found a cure for ALS, Steve and Barbara ultimately lost their son Benjamin to ALS in 2008 at the age of 37. That same year, they founded ALS Worldwide, a non-profit organization devoted to providing scientific research interpretation, information, and support to persons with ALS and their families. Through the last 15 years, they have helped tens of thousands of ALS patients, their families and caregivers. ALS Worldwide continues its mission still today.

Steve wasn’t a nomad, but he might have been confused for one. Over their lives together, Steve and Barbara lived in Des Moines, Chicago, Evanston, Long Grove, Chicago (again), Dodgeville, Madison, Fitchburg, and most recently in Milwaukee. Steve re-discovered his inner Jewish self following his first visit to Israel at age 68 and returned to keeping Kosher and wearing a kippah on most days. Steve’s love of music created a soundtrack for his days, and those of his family and friends who found themselves in the car or room with him; his current find or favorite album on constant rotation. Despite experiencing various symptoms of the Alzheimer’s Disease that plagued Steve during the last six years of his life, Steve never forgot the stories of his life or passed up a chance to retell them to his family and friends, old and new. Under the truly loving care of the staff at Saint John’s on the Lake as his disease progressed, Steve also never forgot the name or to pinch the arm of his favorite caregivers as they walked by.

In the last years of his life, Steve returned to his love of painting, inspired by Eastern European folk art, birds, and his beautiful wife and partner in life of 60 years, Barbara.

Steve was preceded in death by his parents, two sisters, and his beloved son, Benjamin Saul Byer.

Steve is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Barbara, his caring children, Matthew (Susan), Joshua, Sarah (Barry), and Rebeccah (Zebulon), and his adoring grandchildren, Adam, Zachary, John, Mackenzie, Elizabeth, Zoe, Abby, Henry, and Elliott.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ALS Worldwide at www.alsworldwide.org, a research and advocacy organization founded by Stephen and Barbara and dedicated to supporting ALS patients and their families, or to a charity of your choice.

Chapel services will be held on Friday, January 10, 2025, at 12:15 pm at Shalom Memorial Funeral Home, 1700 W. Rand Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois. The family will receive condolences on Saturday, January 11, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, at Saint John’s on the Lake, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will sit shiva on Monday, January 13, 2025, from 4:00 pm to 8:30 pm, at the home of Matthew and Susan Byer, Westport, Connecticut, with a minyan service at 6:30 pm.

For the link to virtually view the service and to leave condolences, please see www.shalommemorial.org or call 1-847-255-3520.