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2801 Fourth Ave, San Diego, CA 92103
Donald
"Don" Hauck (May 1, 1931 - June 18, 1992) was the founder of Dawn Media and publisher of Update, the San Diego-based newspaper for the California gay and lesbian community. He founded Dawn Media in the mid-1970s, distributing the Advocate, NewsWest and Drummer. He co-founded Update and published the first issue on March 23, 1979. Don Hauck dedicated much of his later professional life to helping to create and sustain a stable, positive, cohesive and inclusive LGBT community.
Hauck was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and attended John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, for three and half years before enlisting in the Navy. After his discharge, he was employed by the Navy as a civilian in the South Pacific. He returned briefly to the United States, settled in Los Angeles, then left again and traveled in Europe. After moving to San Diego in 1965, Hauck worked as a private investigator, a part-time bartender and then as a manager in the building supply business, finally opening his own fencing company in the early 1970s.
A few years later, Hauck founded the company Dawn Media, and served as the local distributor and advertising representative for national and local LGBT publications such as The Advocate, Drummer magazine, Los Angeles-based Newswest and San Diego's Pacific Coast Times. When the Pacific Coast Times relocated to L.A., was renamed Coast to Coast Times and subsequently folded, Hauck and his friend Howard Rouse recognized the need within the San Diego LGBT community for a local news resource.
The first edition of Update was assembled on a kitchen table and published in March 1979. The lead story, "Police Harassment at the Barbary Coast," involved alleged police harassment when two men were arrested and jailed on lewd conduct charges for dancing together at a club. Hauck remained Update's publisher throughout his life, helping the biweekly publication grow to a circulation of 15,000 in San Diego County. For their tenth anniversary, in 1989, San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor declared March 29 "Update Day" in San Diego for the paper's contribution to civil rights in the San Diego community.
Hauck was a founding member of the Greater San Diego Business Association, a nonprofit organization commonly referred to as San Diego's LGBT Chamber of Commerce, which links LGBT businesses as well as other companies committed to the progression of civil rights. He also helped start the National Gay & Lesbian Press Association.
Reinforcing a stable, cohesive and inclusive LGBT community was extremely important to Hauck. He had an active social circle, often entertaining people at home or at nearby restaurants, and held weekly luncheons with Dawn Media staff, friends and business associates to encourage positive community relationships. He donated generously to many LGBT organizations, but often requested that he be unacknowledged publicly.
Hauck died in June 1992 after being in poor health for over a year. An annual full scholarship for an LGBT journalism student was established in his honor shortly thereafter. In his last will and testament, which he called his "final editorial," Hauck bid farewell with the reminder: "Carry the torch — I'll be watching!"
In 2004 Don was posthumously added to the Wall of Honor at the San Diego LGBT Center.
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