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Credit: Isabella Figueroa

Dean Hauck is posing at the entrance of Michigan News Agency. She is standing next to the new calendars for the 2024 year.

“‘Stop reading! Stuff the newspapers! Go, Dean!’— and that’s one of the first things that still wakes me in the night when I’m trying to go to sleep,” said Dean Hauck, the current owner of Michigan News Agency where they sell paperbacks, newspapers, magazines, greeting cards, Michigan souvenirs and candy.
Dean was born in 1939 to an American family living in the Philippines. In 1942 Dean was two-and-a-half and she, her mother and her sister had been relocated to the Santo Tomas Internment camp, located in the Philippines, with over 28 hundred other Americans during World War II.
Near the end of the war, the Japanese soldiers lined up the prisoners of war. The plan was to first shoot and kill the children and then the mothers. An hour before the American soldiers were thought to arrive, while the children and their mothers were lined up to be shot, the American soldiers led by Douglas MacArthur, crashed through the gate and liberated the prisoners of war. If they had come later, they would have found everyone dead in the Santo Tomas University’s Internment Camp.
After the war, Dean, her mother and her sister moved to California and then to Kalamazoo in 1947. Here, Dean’s mother met and married the owner of the Michigan News Agency, Vincent “Pops” Malmstrom.
Pops gave his new step-daughter, Dean, a job she couldn’t refuse: sweeping the floors and stuffing the newspaper. She worked for 50 cents an hour, also earning book borrowing privileges for her off-the-clock enjoyment.
Dean worked on the counter at Michigan News Agency while she was at Woodward Elementary until she graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School in 1957.
KC’s school day ended at 3:10, and by 3:30 Dean was working the register. This is the same place customers will regularly find Dean today. While working the register, Dean also learned how to talk to and listen to people.
As Dean continued to work at the store, she became increasingly curious as to why people were the way they were and why people weren’t treating others with respect.
“That was all the beginnings of my education. That is the most important thing in my life,– trying to understand people. I think if we could understand each other and talk to each other, and be kind to each other, then we could help our world be a better place,” Dean said.
Dean learned a lot from the world around her. She was eager to learn more and earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and a master’s degree at the University of Illinois before moving to Seattle in 1962, where she taught high school English.
While Dean was in Seattle, significant changes were happening in Kalamazoo, especially the change of Michigan Avenue from a two-way to a one-way street.
One day, Dean received a call from Pops, who was thrilled to notify her that the city had delegated the responsibility of street maintenance to the state, sparing the store extraneous street management expenses. The roadway would also be changing from a two-way to a one-way configuration, as we know it today. Pops was pleased to be free of Michigan Avenue upkeep, but Dean was upset and shocked that Kalamazoo surrendered these duties to the state of Michigan rather than retaining it for themselves.
Within two weeks, Dean’s phone buzzed once again and it was Pops saying that their sales had been cut in half because of the change of direction from two-way to one-way.
“We still have people calling us at the corner of Portage and Michigan asking us how they can get to us because they can’t go straight up Michigan Ave because it’s not two-way anymore,” Dean said.
To Dean, the fact that Michigan Ave is a one-way street means that people aren’t coming to Kalamazoo to shop and support the local business. Instead, they are passing through downtown Kalamazoo at 40-45 miles per hour.
Another challenge local businesses have had to face is over the years the homeless population of Kalamazoo which has increased. Dean believes that Kalamazoo needs to buckle up and face the homeless situation head-on.
Looking out the window of the news agency, you can see people sleeping on the bench that’s in front of the store.
“Every human being deserves a home. If they aren’t able to have a home, if they are constantly having to sleep in Bronson Park, or sleep at the Arcadia Creek site, or sleeping on the bench in front of the Michigan News,” Dean continued, “if they don’t have a home that they can feel safe in, then they cannot like themselves. They have a very hard time being the communicative, gentle people that I think we all can be.”
In Dean’s opinion, throughout the years Kalamazoo has neglected the homeless population. She has seen people sleep on the steps of the courthouse because they have no place to call home.
“Luckily for me, I found a place that I can call home. That place that I call home is this store: Michigan News Agency,” Dean said.
Living in Kalamazoo for 75 years, Dean has created a deep connection to Kalamazoo, and she feels dedicated to the community.
During the Pharmacia and Upjohn merger, many workers from Kalamazoo moved to Ann Arbor. The workers who transitioned to Ann Arbor asked Dean to relocate the store, but she refused because she felt that here was where she belonged — at the heart and center of Kalamazoo.
At some point, the rise of digital media would tried to knock out Dean store, no matter where she was in Michigan. Since the Michigan News Agency sells print publications, the rise of digital media means the bookstore is being challenged in many ways. People come into the store and rather than buying the newspaper, they take photos of it.
“You can make your own choice rather than having some flip flip on the internet making the choice for you.” Dean said. “I agree. I go on Facebook, and the first thing that comes up on my screen is all sorts of things that I would be interested in. Excuse me? I don’t want you to tell me what I’m interested in. I want all the variety of this so I can make those choices.”
Dean believes that the younger generations will realize that the loss of the printed word will have a larger impact than they think. According to Dean, the younger generation needs to stop getting information sent to their fingertips and sit back, think, and use their minds.
Through Dean, the Michigan News Agency works to keep people informed and to keep the printed word alive. Dean sets the tone for the store. She believes in her community and the people that will be here when she is gone. Dean dedicates her life to reading, listening, and connecting with people.
One thing that has stuck with her is how one of her favorite customers told her that she treats everyone with respect. “If we don’t respect each other, don’t listen to each other, don’t try to talk to each other, then we are going to lose it all.” Dean continued with hopeful words for the youth of today. “When I’m gone, you’ll be here. You’ll be the leaders. You’ll be the one making the choices that will keep our world spinning.”