Marilyn met artsy, mechanically-minded Dennis Stemp, and followed him blithely down the road that led to IronWorks. She’s never regretted a second of it. Not even the many beans-on-toast dinners or stressful moments over the company checkbook. As single title publishers who had bumbled into the industry with little experience, their learning curve was steep. Marilyn has said, “we didn’t know what we didn’t know so we just kept moving ahead.”
In the early years, when printing bills came more quickly than advertising revenue, Marilyn and Dennis turned to their own garage for funding… and started selling their bikes.
Marilyn recalls “the one that was toughest: the Harley-Davidson XLCR. Losing that motorcycle stands in testament to how darn determined we were that IronWorks would succeed.” and it won’t surprise anyone, that she knows where that bike is, still.
Marilyn looks back fondly and states “We’d put everything we had into IronWorks – and a little bit more. But I like to think we also carved out a niche by approaching the topic in a new way. We figured there were other riders like us with more enthusiasm for the machinery than the lifestyle – which ultimately led to living the lifestyle, just in a different way. So we snubbed sound bites and instead took the time to dig deeper and connect the dots. To tell the stories of people and their motorcycles with candor and respect. To do that in complete sentences with no bro-talk. To make space for women columnists and minority bike owners. We were inclusive before it was a thing.”
“Those years earned us some credibility and laid the foundation for a future I wasn’t yet aware of or prepared for.” And when Dennis passed away in 2000, reeling from the loss, with two children depending on her and always another deadline to meet, she daily doubted her abilities. She would ask herself “Had a woman ever been editor of a nationally-circulated, mainstream motorcycle magazine before? Did she have the chops to chart the path? And, oh, yeah, how many cupcakes does the third-grade need tomorrow? Yes, running IronWorks pushed her to move off the pillion, so to speak, and forced her to confront new challenges.
Fourteen years later, when IronWorks’ publisher pulled the plug, it was devastating. But Marilyn remains proud of what her team accomplished, including her son, Vincent, who was on staff then. In 2014, she decided that she had to reinvent herself. And she did just that. Iron Trader News was re-established online with Marilyn in the editor’s chair. In 2015 Marilyn became founding editor the Sturgis Rider Daily, a newspaper published during the Sturgis Rally for the Sturgis Buffalo Chip. She also edits the monthly Kiwi Indian E-news. In between, she wrote the Harley-Davidson-sanctioned history of their Custom Vehicle Operations titled Harley-Davidson CVO for Motorbooks International/Quatro Publishing, and edited Gloria, A Lifetime Motorcyclist by Gloria Tramontin Struck for Wolfgang Publishing.
To keep from being bored Marilyn has maintained memberships in the AMA, AMCA, H.O.G. and MRF, and has consistently supported efforts to capture our shared history and promote the positive aspects of motorcycling, such as providing editorial support for the Legends Ride and Biker Belles charity events; she has acted as moderator for the Biker Belles symposium on several occasions. She helped organize and promote Builder Breakfast Charity events in both Daytona and Sturgis in the mid-2000s to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Boggy Creek Gang Camp. With her friend Jeff Najar, Marilyn revived the event at Sturgis in 2015 as the Flying Piston Charity Breakfast held in association with the Buffalo Chip’s Motorcycles As Art Exhibition to benefit the tech ed scholarships and Motorcycle Missions. And just for fun, she is a partner in the world’s largest Evel Knievel collection, now housed in the new Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas.
Marilyn proudly exclaims” It’s a splendid gift to work in an industry that’s endlessly innovative while holding tight to its traditions. Better yet, motorcycling is populated by such authentic people. Over time, many of them have become for me not simply business associates or acquaintances, but essential friends and family. I love my family of birth, but my family of choice is all that more dear, perhaps for the serendipity of it all.”
In August of 2018, serendipity led Marilyn Stemp to the ranks of the Sturgis Hall of Fame. Later that year she was honored to be inducted into the Las Vegas Motorcycle Hall of Fame during Las Vegas BikeFest and in early 2019 she accepted an honorary position as a National Ambassador for All Kids Bike with Strider Sports Int’l.
Marilyn was honored and delighted to receive the annual Strider Inspiration Award in 2020 at the Sturgis Museum Hall of Fame Breakfast, recognizing her efforts in the campaign to get more kids riding bikes – kids who grow up to be adults riding motorcycles.