Free Press gives Steve Molk Founder Award for decades of local activism

The Columbus Free Press presented Stephen Molk with its Founder Award on November 5. The honor acknowledges Molk’s long history with the paper and his role in local political movements. The ceremony recognized his contributions to community journalism and civic engagement in central Ohio.

Molk’s connection to the Free Press began in the 1970s. He joined the Ohioans for Utility Reform group after college. That organization included future paper founders such as Steve and Sandy Sterrett, Libby Gregory, and John Quigley. Molk wrote features for the Free Press during that decade. His reporting covered the Seabrook demonstrations, the Piketon atomic workers strike, and debates over Columbus City Council district voting.

He also wrote a column called Bangs and Whimpers. The name came from a poem by T.S. Eliot. The column tracked news from anti-nuclear and safe energy communities. Molk helped establish the Central Ohio Safe Energy Committee in 1977 and 1978. He participated in protests at the Seabrook and Zimmer nuclear plants. He was arrested at the Zimmer plant in 1978. He also joined a Columbus rally one year after the Three Mile Island accident.

Molk’s activism continued in major cities. In 1982, he attended a nuclear power protest in New York City that drew more than one million people. He was arrested twice during that event. Once occurred at the Soviet mission to the UN. The second arrest happened with friend Mike Gruber at the US mission to the UN. Molk later joined a Pentagon protest in Washington, D.C. There, he handcuffed himself to a grate on the driveway. Officers used bolt cutters to remove the group.

A memorable incident took place at the Ohio Statehouse in December 1982. Molk shouted Remember Kent State during the dedication of the Rhodes statue. An officer warned him to stop. He shouted the phrase again after the officer left. Police took him to a station, and Gruber posted bail. Molk sued the city for a First Amendment violation. He settled the lawsuit for $600.

Molk returned to the Free Press in the 1990s and 2000s. He delivered newspapers around Columbus with Bill Buckel. In recent years, he volunteered with the Mid-Ohio Workers’ Association. He helped organize food distribution there. Molk retired in 2020. He now spends time playing the French horn in an orchestra and singing in several choirs.