Nick Molle was an institution and an icon. He’s a legend. He won Emmys. He brought us beauty and light and education about the Park, our natural resources, our best course for the future. His family is a brilliant part of the Estes landscape, with his wife Mary Elizabeth, and powerhouse daughters Claire and Lauren. His staff at his production company includes local highly accomplished luminaries of video and audio.
I’ve known Nick since we arrived in Estes permanently in 2003. I knew his voice before I knew him. That gentle voice, like a flowing Rocky stream in a mellow mountain meadow, permeates the airwaves in Estes, from his incredible videos, to those advertisements that would run for years in the theatre, and to his singing of his own and others’ folk tunes.
When he sang, he went to a lower register, and I praised him frequently for having a REAL folk singer’s voice, very emotive, you could see the scenes pass by your eyes as he sang them. His voice was a crackly, rumbly but smooth wonder. I was lucky to accompany him a few times, playing little melodic fills and chords to add texture to his tunes.
His songs were a tapestry of his life, including “Colorado, You’re Still on My Mind” and “Colorado Woman”, but he loved so much music, and always requested the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple”. “Let there be songs to fill the air.”
He was at Woodstock, the real Woodstock, partying with some famous dudes and dudettes, and he loved to tell stories of wild and wonderful early days.
His video achievements are absolutely top of the line, on most PBS stations, and available everywhere, including his own Rocky Mountain Channel online. If you haven’t watched the full set of Nick’s videos, you are missing a big part of Rocky edification and history.
His humor was unparalleled. Wry, dry, and on-target. He was a sweet man, never raised his voice, vast professionalism, and pure spirit. I will miss our conversations and projects, and my heart goes out to his family, and to the town of Estes, which lost one of our special souls today, March 18, 2026.
A life well lived. You see it in his videos, you hear it in his narrations, and you witness it with his family and the mark he left on the Rocky Mountain region.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and our prayer is that their memories of Nick make him immortal.