Pines Village board of directors profile: Dee Haklin

Vice President

Before Henry Ford and the Model T, there was the Brush Runabout.

Though it was built long before her time, Dee Haklin has fond memories of an early-1900s Brush her grandfather acquired as barter during the Great Depression. A home heating oil deliveryman in Iowa, he had accepted the old motor car as payment from a farmer who didn’t have the money to pay his bill.

Dee’s grandfather refurbished the vehicle, a classic with wooden spokes, hand crank, glass lanterns and a hood cover that folded up from the side.

Some of her fondest memories, Dee says, are of riding with her grandparents in that long-lived automobile in parades and at county fairs. Her grandfather even took the Brush to the Iowa State Fair one year.  “I rode back with him on the highway in that old car,” Dee says with laugh. “It’s a wonder we both lived to tell the story!”

Now, as vice chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College’s Valparaiso campus and board vice president at Pines Village, Dee retains that affection for family, as seen in a five generation photo gracing her office.                                                      

The picture depicts a family history of first-born women stretching from her grandmother to her granddaughter. Just as she is at Ivy Tech and in the Valparaiso community, Dee is right in the middle of things.

With degrees in educational leadership, psychology and music education, Dee came to Ivy Tech Valparaiso 11 years ago. She was instrumental in the construction of the new campus in the Eastport Centre, which has become a nexus for educational and cultural events in the city.  She has the best job, Dee says, because she gets to work with great people and serve as the face of Ivy Tech in Porter County.,

Her own “educational hero,” as she calls him, is her husband Jim, who started college at age 48 after retiring from Bethlehem Steel. He earned an associate’s degree at Ivy Tech, went on to get bachelor’s and master’s degrees and now works as an adjunct business professor at Ivy Tech.

Dee’s an avid traveler. She and Jim visit Mexico yearly, and Dee recently traveled with a Valparaiso city delegation to China to promote business and educational exchange opportunities there.  The summer of 2011 will find Dee and a friend making a cross-generational Grand Tour of “the Continent” as the two travel with their teenage granddaughters across Europe.

With Baby Boomers beginning to swell the ranks of retirees, Dee is grateful that her association with Pines Village allows her to keep up to date with cutting edge practices in elder care.

“I believe very much that Pines Village is doing it right in terms of care and support for our elderly,” she says.

And Dee speaks from experience, her mother having been a Pines Village resident who eagerly took advantage of the multitude of activities, outings and events available to her.

“Residents really come first, there’s no question in my mind,” Dee says. “That’s not necessarily always the way it is. I’m very impressed with the dedication of the staff to fulfill the mission.”

We Celebrate Life is a collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of just some of the wonderful, extraordinary people who live, work and serve Pines Village Retirement Communities. View more >