If you care about Central Ohio sustainability or environmental activism, chances are your journey has been touched by Marilyn Welker. As one of Simply Living’s co-founders and a past Executive Director, Marilyn’s gentle wisdom and steadfast commitment to justice helped shape Simply Living’s history and the broader
sustainability movement in our region.

Marilyn traces her values to her parents’ quiet resilience. Before her birth, her mother contracted German measles while pregnant with Marilyn’s older brother, who was born with disabilities and passed away at only 6 years old. Her mother embraced spiritual growth, home gardening, and prioritizing organic foods as acts of love and self-reliance. Her choices were one of Marilyn’s earliest lessons that compassion and resilience are
cultivated through action. Her parents welcomed three more children. Growing up as the youngest of three, she absorbed those lessons deeply.

Over the years, Marilyn felt a profound concern for hunger and poverty, especially as a mother. Through her church’s partnership with Bread for the World, she joined and later led the Hunger and Development Coalition of Central Ohio. The Coalition (HADCCO) hosted Columbus’s 1990 Earth Day celebration at Whetstone Park, a joyful event that awakened a broader vision. Realizing the integral connections between environmental and social justice issues, Marilyn stepped away from HADCCO determined to create a space for people who wanted to live simply and more sustainably.

That decision led to the creation of Simply Living, a Central Ohio community education nonprofit dedicated to connecting personal choices with systemic change. “We needed an organization that would support people wanting to ‘be the change we seek for the world,’” Marilyn says.

Marilyn recalls the early years with fondness: building a relationship with Dick and Jeanne Roy of the Northwest Earth Institute (now EcoChallenge) to offer their discussion courses; then later using the Roys’ “Agents of Change” course to build leadership in people’s circles of influence to further sustainable living. Simply Living members became leaders in their neighborhoods and communities, exemplified by
Sustainable Delaware Ohio started by longtime Simply Living member Sheila Fox. Over the years Simply Living incubated projects that would blossom into local institutions, including Local Matters, WGRN Radio, Community Shares of Mid-Ohio, and the Compassionate Communication Center of Ohio.

She smiles when she thinks about Randall Loop, whose life changed after reading Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Randall went on to teach others how to live with financial integrity and purpose through the Spirit and Money Course he developed based on their teachings (which is offered through Simply Living Sustainable U).

And she praises longtime member and collaborator Jeff Sharp, whose leadership enabled Simply Living to co-host annual conferences at OSU, amplifying Simply Living’s influence across Central Ohio. (Jeff continues as a professor at OSU’s School of Environment and Natural Resources.)

Today, Marilyn and her husband Bob care for six peaceful acres in Champaign County near Urbana, where she restores the land and he nurtures a small pond teeming with life. Her passion for protecting Ohio’s environment hasn’t slowed a bit. She co-founded People for Safe Water, a grassroots group that rallied hundreds of residents to demand the cleanup of the Tremont Barrel Fill Superfund Alternative Site. Currently she serves on the board of the Arc of Appalachia to help preserve Ohio’s rare ecosystems in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.

Marilyn speaks with deep reverence for Ohio’s natural heritage. One of her favorite stories is about the ancient Teays River, a massive waterway that predated the glaciers more than 2.5 million years ago. Flowing northwest through what is now West Virginia and Ohio—including Columbus—it wound its way into Illinois before emptying into the Mississippi River. When advancing glaciers dammed the Teays, they created vast lakes like Lake Tight and unleashed floods that carved the courses of the modern Ohio and Scioto Rivers. Though buried beneath glacial deposits, the Teays River’s legacy lives on in the enormous aquifers that today supply Ohio with abundant water resources.

Ohio’s landscape reflects this rich geological history: the Ohio Valley lies between Appalachian foothills to the east and tall grass prairies to the west, its abundant life and fertile soils once drawing the Hopewell people here 2,000 years ago. Marilyn sums it up simply: “Ohio is still the heart of it all.” Yet she worries that unchecked development and unsustainable land practices continue to erode this irreplaceable natural legacy she holds so dear.

“Simply Living is important because it’s a vessel for personal and community creativity. And together we affirm our best efforts to align our values and our actions. What we think and do matters,” she says. “Simply Living’s magic has been rooted in its values and how we choose to plant those values in the community.” echoing Paul Hawken’s description of nonprofits in Blessed Unrest as “the genius of America.”

As Simply Living approaches 2026, Marilyn’s reflections bring us back to our roots: to speak truth, live simply, and honor the Earth we all share. Her stories of Simply Living’s early days—filled with laughter, charming quirks, and passionate activism—capture the spirit that built this community. Visiting with her was an honor and a reminder that building a better world is sustained as much by shared joy as by shared purpose.