Current Awardee: Marcos
Ernesto Lopez Molina, Jr lived his life with boundless enthusiasm and joyous conviction, taking the first breath of his inquisitive and occasionally mischievous pursuit of knowledge and adventure on 15 April 1954 in Tucson, AZ. Amidst the rugged beauty and diverse wildlife of the saguaro-blessed desert, he grew in his love of nature, history, music, and friendship.
Ernesto graduated cum laude in History from Yale University in 1976. After completing an MA at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, he served six years in the US Department of State, developing life-long attachments to Peru.
Encountering resistance as an openly gay man within the state department during the start of the Reagan Administration, Ernesto resigned from the agency in 1984 and relocated to San Francisco.
There, he found employment with the Contra Costa County Probation Department as a probation officer, developing rich friendships with his colleagues and, over time, receiving numerous commendations for his endeavors within the community. He volunteered as a mediator with California Community Dispute Services and sat on the city of El Cerrito Human Rights Commission.
These community involvements around Law and Social Justice led him to pursue a program of studies at Golden Gate University School of Law, while also continuing work as a probation officer. He thrived in both arenas.
Several years before this, Ernesto experienced sporadic bouts of fever, fatigue, and infections, leading to an AIDS diagnosis in 1992. He made the difficult decision to step away from his academic pursuits to focus on his health and livelihood.
Within a year, another impactful cycle of infections and hospitalizations occurred, followed by several healthy rebounds. As a result, Ernesto chose to retire from the work he greatly loved to focus exclusively on his health and well-being.
As throughout his life, during these periods of health stability, Ernesto continued to sing with The SF Gay and Lesbian Chorus; to bond with other gay men through drumming and healing practices in Gay Spirit; and to nurture his soul through meditation in Zen Wind, finding much whimsy in the chant, “Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond; Gone Beyond Beyond, Supreme Awakening, Svaha!”
Above all, Ernesto immersed himself in nature, by day and by night. He particularly took delight in hiking trails at Lake Sonoma, the East Bay Regional Parks, and Point Reyes.
National Seashores, and Tucson’s Saguaro National Park, where he enthralled himself in the massive lightning and thunder clashes of the summer monsoon.
He worked his passion for the night sky into a kind of magic, employing his portable telescope to lure his companions into the wonders of the vast cosmos. Ernesto particularly favored the constellation Orion with the middle star in its belt, Alnilam, as a treasure, to which he teased that his spirit would one day travel.
In the calm and quiet of the deep night, on Friday, 27 January 1995, Ernesto exhaled his final breath in his home in El Cerrito, surrounded by a vast engendered love of a uniquely formed family who cherished walking together on this journey at his side. Through this scholarship, may Ernesto Molina’s delight in learning, friendship, and discovery live anew in the hearts and minds of fellow Queer adventurers, questioning, inquiring, and expanding in pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
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