Steve Melkisethan tragically and suddenly passed away in early September 2024. Steve was an early and active member of the Metro DC DSA’s Montgomery County branch and a beloved presence at branch meetings, picnics, actions and more.

By his own telling, Steve first became aware of MDC DSA when he participated in anti-David Blair action organized by the Montgomery County branch and allies during the 2018 electoral cycle. From there, he had so much fun with DSA that he kept hanging out with us. Steve’s presence on the left dates back further. His first experience in local left organizing was in 1965 when he joined a picket line organized by Quakers to desegregate graduate student housing at the University Of Maryland. The university caved in two weeks and from there he concluded that “wow, this activism stuff is really easy” – and then he quickly learned how wrong he was. From there, he began a life long involvement with the peace movement discovering along the way that all of the causes related to peace and justice were inextricably linked.

In the late 1990s, Steve and his wife, Susan, started studying photography and their natural subject matter was the protest movements that they were already a part of. Steve and Susan’s work is in the permanent collections of the New York Public Radio and the Library of Congress, has been published on major news sites and was featured in an exhibit at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit. Steve’s photos also appear in the documentary Israelism.

Steve was known as “Farmer Steve” in his East Bethesda neighborhood because of his large garden.

You can access Steve's enormous catalogue of photos on Flickr, here.

After Steve’s passing, local comrades have shared their memories of Steve:

I first met Steve in 2020 during our Montgomery County campaign to defeat question B. Because of the pandemic, our branch’s major contribution was planning and holding biweekly phonebanks to voters, urging them to vote against the austerity ballot measure. Steve was the most regular participant in these phone banks, making thousands of calls over the course of the campaign and even helping lead a couple of phonebanks. Steve’s constant encouragement and enthusiasm kept me going in leading this campaign, even when I doubted my own leadership.

One of my other favorite memories of Steve was when, inspired by his neighbors hosting a fundraiser for then-candidate for Montgomery county executive Hans Riemer, Steve decided to host a counter-party for DSA comrades and neighbors. We called the party “Farmer Steve’s Oktoberfest.” A group of Montgomery County branch members, including Steve, gathered a factsheet about Riemer’s record opposing organized labor and more to prepare for the party and share with any passerbys looking for the Riemer fundraiser. Comrades from across the chapter, new DSA members and even international comrades representing multiple German political parties came to hang out Steve’s front yard, while he grilled brats and picked up vegan pizza for us. County Executive Marc Elrich even made an appearance. All in all, we left convinced that our party was much more fun than the Hans Riemer fundraiser, mostly because Steve was a great host.

‍— Nicole Z

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Farmer Steve was a neighbor of mine, a family friend, an innovative amp technician, a dedicated community leader, an intrepid photographer, a skilled farmer. He was the first one to invite me to join the Montgomery County branch— he delivered a home-grown butternut squash to my door with a note inviting me to a branch meeting. He was a role model of a friend and neighbor in my life and I know his reach was so wide and he was so well loved by so many. He was a powerful force in our community and he will be missed so dearly. For an extremely small taste of how prolific he was, I invite people to check out his photo albums of Flickr of the many years he documented actions and gatherings in our area.

‍— Olivia D

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Reviewing our area’s protests through Steve’s camera lens is an emotional experience. But thankfully, his incredible archive is not only worth reviewing today- it is worth reviewing well into the future. His eyes recorded DMV activist history.

Through Steve's photos, I felt inspired today. Inspired by the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition and their recent Juneteenth Celebration which Steve captured. Inspired by a protest held on July 24th, 2024 in the service to a free Palestine. And inspired by the pictures of activists way back in 2013 to close Guantanamo who I don't know but who marched the same grounds we march today.

His photos teach us now and in the future how to change unfair and unsuccessful government, corporate, and legal systems. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Steve has uploaded five thousand and ninety-five photos to his flickr. His album would be worth five million and nine hundred seventy five thousand words then. But I know damn well that five million and nine hundred seventy five thousand words are not enough to describe the impact Steve has had and will have as his photos inspire us to march more effectively into the future. 

I don't know if Steve would agree with this framing, but to me Steve was the People's Journalist of the DMV area.

I will always miss him.

‍— Tino F

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This is a profound loss for our Branch and our entire community. I have so much I could say about Steve, one of our earliest and most active members since our branch was founded. He was a true artist and activist, and that was so clear in every interaction I was lucky to have with him. He captured our protests and actions with his photography, he flooded our get-togethers with smells and flavors of fresh vegetables and grilled meals. He was always excited to regale us with stories about the specialty equipment that he loaned to Bruce Springsteen, and he touched all of us with his passion, generosity, fervent desire to speak truth to power. 

He was a community builder, and this branch owes him so much.

— Frankie SF

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Farmer Steve was a Comrade's Comrade. Very supportive and downright friendly. I will never forget the conversations we had on many subjects including farming. I will never forget him smiling and having fun on Juneteenth and his congratulations and the next steps. He seemed to be everywhere and I'll add what Tino said that in addition to being the People's Journalist, he was also the People's Photographer. May we all honor his memory and keep up the fight. May he guide us as an ancestor.

— Robert S

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Montgomery County DSA’s unofficial songstress Susan R recorded a song to memorialize Steve, titled because “Because We Knew Steve.” You can download the track here, or listen below (give it a second to load.

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You can read more about Steve Melkisethian's life as a musician in Fretboard Journal.