Ken Kolker

WOOD-TV (Grand Rapids) investigative reporter Ken Kolker has retired from the station this past week, following a long career in journalism. pursued stories with the conviction that journalism could do more than document events. At its best, he believed, it could change lives.

In a story written by Brian Sterling posted on the station's website, Kolker said “You’ve been in the news business for 47 years. It sort of becomes who you are; it becomes part of your identity.”

Kolker is reaching the end of an uncommon career that stretched from small-town radio to newspaper reporting and ultimately to investigative television journalism. Along the way, he earned a reputation as one of Michigan’s most accomplished reporters, building trust with victims, and producing investigations that altered public policy.

Curiosity, he said, was always the starting point.  “As a reporter, you’re supposed to be curious, right? How’s that working? How is that happening?” Kolker said.

“The back door of the Press building, get around the secretary, go upstairs, go down the hallway and there’s Bob Becker, the sports editor, so he had no idea what was coming. I just showed up with only six clips (of my writing),” Kolker said.

Three years later, he landed his first full-time reporting job at The Saginaw News. It was there that he experienced the realization that a well-reported story could shape another person’s future.

“The first time … I slammed my fist on the table top. Like damn — that was good.” Kolker recalls.

He fell in love not only with reporting, but also with the rituals of newspapering itself — the urgency of deadline, the thunder of the presses and the permanence of seeing a byline transformed into history.

In 2009, after 30 years in newspapers, Kolker made what once would have seemed an unlikely move, joining WOOD TV8’s Target 8 investigative team. Like many newspaper reporters of his generation, he admitted he once viewed television journalism with skepticism.

“Up in the (newspaper) newsroom … when the TVs were on, we would be watching the news to see if we missed anything and just making fun of the reporters. We were just ruthless. And then I became one,” he said.

The transition was humbling.

“(I was) so stiff (on camera),” he said. “My throat was dry and my hands would be filled with sweat.”

Yet television expanded the reach of his work. His investigations prompted Kent County to dispatch the nearest available ambulance to cardiac arrest calls regardless of jurisdiction. His reporting led Michigan prisons to collect DNA from inmates, helping solve cold cases. His extensive coverage of PFAS contamination tied to Wolverine Worldwide contributed to state action and litigation.

His work earned repeated recognition from his peers while taking him to some of the defining tragedies of a generation.

Read more on the WOOD-TV website here.