Cover Story: Michigan News Agency

MICHIGAN NEWS AGENCY

NOT JUST CUSTOMERS, VALUED FRIENDS

By Dave Person david.r.person@gmail.com

Immediately upon entering the Michigan News Agency in downtown Kalamazoo, people fi nd they are not just customers, but valued friends. That’s the way owner Dean Hauck sees it, and the way she likes it. You will fi nd her, or one of her two part-time employees, at or near the front counter. If you are a regular with a standing newspaper order or a special book order, they will have it waiting for you. If you are new to the store that specializes in magazines and paperback books, of which there are thousands, and newspapers, which — though dwindling in number — still have a place of prominence near the door, Hauck or one of her assistants stand ready to help. “The main thing I like about this store is our connections to the people,” Hauck says. Hauck has owned the Michigan News Agency, at 308 W. Michigan Ave., since 1988, taking over from her stepfather, Vincent Malmstrom, who opened it in 1947 as a small storefront that offered people a window on the world with its selection of news publications. Malmstrom and Hauck’s mother, Jean, married in 1949, and by the time Hauck was in high school a few years later she was a part-time employee basking in the luxury of having all the reading material she could dream of at her fi ngertips. As the Michigan News Agency prepares to celebrate 75 years in business next year, still at the same location and with the original neon sign out front, Hauck has not tired of reading what she sells. “I read all the time,” Hauck says. That usually means concurrently having two novels and a couple of books of poetry in the works. Knowing what’s behind the covers of her books when it comes time to help someone fi nd something of interest to them is a distinct advantage, she fi nds. That’s particularly true of locally written books that she features in her store. “Anything I’m going to promote, I’m going to read,” she says. “That helps me to promote the business.” Hauck gets great pleasure out of serving her customers, each of whom she considers “a treasure.” She stocks books for use by book clubs and for the annual community Reading Together program; before Covid struck, she also sponsored author readings at the store. Among her programming partners are the Kalamazoo Public Library and Western Michigan University. “We give people the opportunity to call this store their home,” she says. Still, small stores like hers are always on fragile footing, and if the community

wants it to survive, they have to do their part. “Our community must buy their books here” if they want the store to remain open, she asserts. Hauck isn’t a doomsayer, though. Quite the opposite, she’s a survivor, having spent her early years in an internship camp in the Philippines during World War II. At the start of the war, her parents, Clarence and Jean Heinrich, were living in Baguio, in the Philippines, where her father, a mining engineer, was superintendent of a gold mine. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941, Hauck’s father fl ed to become a member of a guerrilla unit; Hauck and her mother and sister were among foreigners rounded up and confi ned to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila until they were freed by American troops in 1945. Her father, meanwhile, was captured by the Japanese and died when the unmarked Japanese ship that was carrying him and other prisoners of war to Japan was bombed by American forces unaware that Americans were on board. His widow and two daughters ended up in San Francisco, where they lived until moving to Kalamazoo in 1947. Hauck remained in Kalamazoo for 10 years, but after graduating from high school in 1957 she was on the move again, earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and master’s from the University of Illinois, both in English. She and her husband, Richard, who has a Ph.D. in English, became teachers, and even built their own school in Florida, while raising their two daughters, Margaret and Sarah. Hauck returned to Kalamazoo with her husband in 1988 to take over ownership of the bookstore from her stepfather. By that time, however, Michigan Avenue was no longer a two-way street, the addition of I-94 and U.S. 131 was directing throughtraffi c away from downtown, and much of the hustle and bustle of the city center had relocated to the suburbs. As a result, the demand for news sources, such as newspapers, had decreased. Hauck turned her attention to maintaining a large selection of books, which helped the store to fl ourish. Although programs such as author readings were curtailed because of Covid, the bookstore, which is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, didn’t skip a beat. “We were an essential business so we never closed,” Hauck says. In fact, she even promoted special services such as curbside pickup and mailing books to customers. Anything to keep in touch with the people of her adopted hometown and keep them in communication with one another. “I have a certain vision for this store and the community of Kalamazoo,” Hauck says. “I want this to be an enlightened community, I want it to be diverse, and I want it to be resilient.”