Monroe Dodge founder Ralph Mahalak Sr. and his wife, Jane, made Monroe their home in 1966. Ralph Mahalak Sr. was born on Feb. 14, 1940, into a Great Depression-surviving family. Jane Mahalak was born on July 8, 1941. Originally from Wyandotte, the grade-school sweethearts married on Oct. 29, 1960. Ralph Mahalak Sr. found early he had a love of cars, first by hanging bumpers at a Chevrolet assembly plant and then deciding that some aspect of the car business was for him.
Opening Monroe Dodge on West Front Street in 1966, Ralph Mahalak Sr. started with eight employees and a shoestring budget. Yet, the popularity of the Dodge brand, and his hobby interest in local and national stock car racing, helped the dealership to grow and, later, move to its current North Monroe Street location.
Ralph Mahalak Sr., and the customer base he cultivated, remained loyal to Dodge and the Chrysler Corporation through the lean bankruptcy years of the late 1970s and company consolidation. The result was a turnaround and expansion of what has become the Mahalak Auto Group, including two dealerships located in Ohio (LPK Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM of Defiance and Buckeye Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Fiat Superstore, located in Shelby) and three dealerships located in Central Florida (Posner Park Chrysler, located in Davenport, Dodge of Winter Haven and Lake Wales Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram).