A Pillar of the Community: 50 Years in Nauvoo

“We assume so many things that aren’t so,” said Karen Ihrig.

Ihrig has lived in Nauvoo for 50 years and she’s been engaged in civic involvement for the last 30 years.

“It’s not what you know that ain’t so,” said Ihrig. “It’s what you think you know that ain’t so.”

Originally from Chicago, Ihrig came to Hancock County for a teaching opportunity.

“When you are of a certain age, you are looking for adventure,” she said.

Her initial job position was only meant to be for three years, but she ended up teaching English at Hamilton High School for 23 years.

“When you are of a certain age, you are looking for adventure”

Karen Ihrig

Thirty Years of Civic Engagement

After she took an early retirement, she began her community involvement when a position for City Alderman was vacant.

She didn’t want to do it at first, but when she heard a PBS program say, “everyone thinks we should have people serve on city government, but no one wants to do it,” her guilty conscience spurned her on.

“I never regretted it,” she said. “I love the fact that it’s a constant learning experience.”

The two biggest things she learned from her 30 years of civic engagement are:

First, “People are people, period,” she said. “When they’re on the outside looking in, they think they know how things are, but they really don’t.”

Second, “It’s really difficult to think of the big picture, when you’ve got yourself and/or your family that’s on your mind. The big picture should be for the good of the town, not for any one cause.”

Creating the Nauvoo Betterment Association

John McCarty, who served as Mayor in Nauvoo for sixteen years, called Ihrig the “most civic minded-person” he’s ever met. “There are no self-serving agendas for her,” he said. “Only to improve the quality of life in the town she loves.”

Ihrig and McCarty worked together in 2007 when the Nauvoo Betterment Association (NBA) was founded. Ihrig was the first co-chairman along with Durell Nelson.

“I suggested a group be formed to help with the betterment of the community without using city funds,” McCarty said. “Boom! It exploded big time, and a lot was accomplished.”

A lot indeed.

Ihrig and the NBA were instrumental in many community projects over the years including paving sidewalks and installing 50 benches in town and along the river, signage and art installations along the Nauvoo River Walk, the creation of the See Nauvoo News, and raising more than ten thousand dollars for the Community Center, recently renamed the Nauvoo City Center.

Karen Ihrig is the “most civic-minded person” former Nauvoo Mayor John McCarty has ever met.

“We are a city committee,” said Ihrig. “Everything we raise, we raise on our own, for the purpose of helping the city.”

Right now the NBA is focusing on highlighting Nauvoo’s natural attractions. Last fall, they introduced the new Health & Wellness Fitness Loop, and on March 16 they will host a Nauvoo Nature-themed trivia night. They also have plans to beautify the entrance to the old school gym.

“I’m pleased about NBA for many reasons,” said Ihrig. “We are a very positive group.”

The group has a reputation of getting stuff done, she said, although she cautioned that people often underestimate how long it takes to accomplish community projects.

A Lasting Impact on the Community

It took Ihrig and Gene Shurts ten years to create the award-winning Nauvoo The Way We Were Walking Tour.

“That was the one I put my real heart and soul on,” Ihrig said.

The tour is an interactive, self-guided walking tour through the history of the buildings on Mulholland. The tour is available on www.beautifulnauvoo.com under “History” and it will soon be available in book-format at local Nauvoo businesses.

Even though Ihrig isn’t a historian, she was inspired to create the tour because of the local “oldies, but goodies” who were always talking about the history of the town.

She decided it was a project worth doing, but admitted without the help of local historian Gene Shurts, the project never would have happened.

“Karen is a long time member of the community,” Shurts said. He described Ihrig as very supportive of the community and a good friend.

Ihrig and Shurts were recognized for their efforts when the tour won the Illinois Governor’s Home Town Award in 2011.

The Grand Opening of the Nauvoo City Center

The Nauvoo City Center will host its official grand opening and ribbon cutting on Saturday, April 13.

At the City Council meeting on February 27, it was decided that the center’s official name will be the Nauvoo City Center.

“A City Center is the center of our city literally and figuratively,” Ihrig said. “This is the hub of our city.”

The City Center was ten years in the making, and Ihrig was one of many community members who were the driving force behind its inception and eventual creation.

Barb Schafer, a friend of Ihrig and the co-chairman of the Nauvoo Community Center Capital Campaign Committee, said, “She has persistence with projects she is involved in and truly has a love of her community.”

She learned a great deal from the experience, Ihrig said. The main thing she learned was: “if you’re building a building, don’t try to do it on your own.”

Over the years, Ihrig has learned to respect the people and mentors she’s worked with in the community. “The more you see, the more you are involved,” she said.

Fulfilling her Civic Duty

Ihrig was reluctant to have this article written about her because, she said, she hasn’t been involved in the community in order to get “accolades,” as she calls them.

She credits learning that from her good friend, Durell Nelson, who recently passed away in 2022.

“Durell was very droll,” Ihrig said. “He was the only person I knew who was droll.”

She related a memorable experience she had with Nelson at a city meeting.

“Someone was moaning that they didn’t get patted on the back for something they’d done,” Ihrig said. Then, she imitated Nelson’s “droll” voice and said: “Nooo! You did it because that’s your duty as a citizen to do it.”

She laughed at this recollection.

“It’s not who does the job. It’s that the job gets done,” she said. “I like people to be happy about what’s done. I want to see the bigger picture.”

Civic Involvement: Encouraging the Next Generation

“Today, we’re going to be a seed,” said Ihrig to a group of second and third graders.

When Ihrig first came to Hancock County, she was a speech and drama teacher for three years.

She described how once she was teaching a group of children and helping them act out what it would be like to be a kernel of corn.

“The rains came down, and it’s warm, and you feel you want to burst, and you send a shoot up,” Ihrig said with animation.

She noticed that one kid wasn’t doing anything, but she didn’t say anything to him.

“At the end, I said, hey, how did that feel?”

That’s when the boy who hadn’t moved jumped up and said, “I was one of those seeds who never grew!”

“He was thinking through that proces,” she said. “To be curious is important… Learning is forever.”

A community needs to work together to think outside the box.

Karen Ihrig

She said a community needs to work together to think outside the box.

“Get out of your silo,” she said. “We all live in our silos.”

“Living in a small town is a wonderful opportunity to learn and see the big picture,” Ihrig said. In Nauvoo we can “be a part of making things happen.”

Ihrig has traveled to many places around the world. One time, when she was filling out a form on an airplane, she said she was templted to fill in: “citizen of the world.”

After educating for over twenty years and being involved in her community for thirty, Karen Ihrig is definitely a citizen of the world, but the people in this town are grateful that for 50 years she has been a citizen of Nauvoo.