Story Photos
 Steve Dussek with his wife, Annie, and son Alessandro, 5, when he was an infant. Courtesy of Steve Dussek
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Homegrown: Kelso's Dussek rode the wave of technological change
Monday, August 4, 2008 11:31 PM PDT
By Carrie Pederson
Printable version
E-mail this articleEditor's note: In this continuing series, we offer extraordinary success stories of native sons and daughters.
Steve Dussek, a 1974 graduate of Kelso High School, always hoped he could retire at age 45.
He never dreamed he would do it as a multi-millionaire.
When Dussek started his career in the cellular phone industry in 1984, “I thought, ‘We can make a decent living doing this,’ ” he said last week. “I had no idea.”
Working with companies such McCaw Cellular and Nextel, Dussek’s career took off with the explosion in cell phone use in the 1990s.
“Technology has changed the way we live,” he said. “It’s staggering from when I got into it.”
Dussek grew up in a small South Kelso home he shared with his sister Linda and their mother, Terry Dussek. His mother worked hard to support them. “She racked lumber at Weyerhaeuser and worked at Bob’s and did everything she could,” Dussek recalled.
He remembers Kelso a safe and friendly place to grow up. He played football in Maple Street with friends “until we couldn’t see and our moms were screaming at us to come in. It was great.”
Dave Davidson, Dussek’s childhood friend, remembers the Dussek home as a place with Italian flavor, always smelling of pesto and garlic. They had a big poodle named Chi-Chi, and a his mother was “very demonstrative,” always hugging and kissing her son.
In high school, Dussek was a snappy dresser, Davidson said. “It was really important for him to look good,” he said.
After high school, Dussek enrolled at Western Washington University but didn’t finish for personal reasons, he said. He got his first job with a cable company and started working at MCI Air Signal in 1984. As a regional manager Dussek said he sold beepers and a new product, cell phones.
McCaw Cellular acquired MCI’s cellular wing in 1986. “Wireless didn’t fit into (MCI’s) overall long term strategy but Craig McCaw had a much different vision,” said Dussek, who worked for McCaw until 1990.
“McCaw went public and they gave us these stock options,” he said. “We realized, you could do pretty well with these.”
In 1994, AT&T bought McCaw Cellular for $12.6 billion.
Around 1990 Dussek decided to take a head position at a paging company in Texas. “Along my career that was the one misstep,” said Dussek, who left the job after about three years, saying the firm didn’t live up to his expectations for strong customer service.
Dussek rejoined McCaw in 1996 as a regional manager of Nextel. It was a booming time in the cell phone industry, as more licenses became available to more operators, he said.
“It really sparked the growth of cellular,” he said. “It was a fun time to be building the company.”
Dussek retired in 2001 and started preparing his fancy retirement home on Capitol Hill in Seattle, anticipating moving back from Washington, D.C.
But his girlfriend Annie deterred that plan. A year later Dussek got married after having been divorced for about 13 years. In 2003, at the age of 47, he became a father for the first time.
In retirement, Dussek spent a few months managing the house with his wife. But arguments over how to load the dishwasher made him decide to go back to work, he said.
In January of 2005, he became CEO of Dobson Communications, an Oklahoma City-based company that provides cell phone service in rural areas.
“Their stock had gone from the low 30s to $1.84 and they were getting extreme pressure from investors and Wall Street,” Dussek said. In 2007 the company was sold to AT&T for $13 a share, he said.
After that, “I tried the retirement thing again with Annie, and we agreed I had one more run in me, one more deal,” Dussek said.
They moved back to Washington, D.C., and he became the CEO of NII Holdings, Inc., Nextel’s subsidiary in Latin America which reported nearly $3.3 billion in revenues last year. The company has 5.5 million subscribers Latin America, and there is still a lot of room for growth, Dussek said.
He remembers early in his career when people predicted there might be a million people using Motorola cell phones over a long period of time. Now, “it’s a ubiquitous tool for people from all walks of life,” Dussek said. “It’s been fun to watch.”
Dussek said the best business leaders have great people skills. “Treat people the way you want to be treated,” he said. “That always rang true with me.”
Linda Lewis of Kelso, Dussek’s sister, said she is most proud of her brother for retaining his generosity of spirit and being a wonderful father.
Dussek and his wife now have three children in Washington, D.C.— Alessandro, 5; Francesca or “Frankie,” 3; and Nicholas, 10 months.
Dussek said his greatest mentor has been his mother, who now lives in Portland. “She’s my hero,” he said. “She’s the one who made what I’m doing today possible.”
Previous ‘homegrown’ profiles:
Kathy Lefebvre: Recognized by Bush administration for her marine biology work (July 30, 2006)
Ted Selker: Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, inventor (Aug. 17, 2006)
Doug Christie: NBA player, reality television star (Sept. 23, 2006)
Andrea Coleman: Los Angeles purse designer, former Disney animator (Oct. 15, 2006)
Robin Raphel: Consultant for the Iraq Reconstruction, former U.S. diplomat (Nov. 16, 2006)
Steve De Jarnatt: Writer and director for television and film (Dec. 10, 2006)
Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick: Recognized for pacemaker and defibrillator research (Dec. 27, 2006)
Steven Crown: Rhodes scholar from Kalama (Jan. 21, 2007)
David Korten: Best-selling author, advocate for social justice (Feb. 20, 2007)
Tracy Miedema: Federal organic food expert (March 24, 2007)
Fran Reisner: Award-winning photographer, sponsored lecturer (April 26, 2007)
Heather Haebe: Editor at Playboy (May 15, 2007)
Dr. Brandith Irwin: Surgery-free skin care expert (July 31, 2007)
Jeremy Cheung: Personal trainer (Oct. 5, 2007)
Lyndsay Farber Lehner: Mystery novel writer (Oct. 14, 2007)
Allison Powell: Pioneer in online education (Dec. 30, 2007)
Birck Cox: Noted medical illustrator (Jan. 22, 2008)
Jeff Pilson has enjoyed a lengthy career as a juke box hero (July 6, 2008)
The Grateful Dad wrote on Aug 5, 2008 12:08 AM:
(TDN, you should hunt down Kelso graduate, Joel Lambert. He went from car salesman and UPS truck loader to Adidas model, then Navy SEAL, then SEAL team trainer, and now actor. He has been on TV in the now cancelled "Jericho" series, and in the major motion picture, "Transformers". Find him! That would be an interesting story!) "
BIGDAR wrote on Aug 5, 2008 8:48 AM:
dragonfly wrote on Aug 5, 2008 9:11 AM:
longviewrez wrote on Aug 5, 2008 10:42 AM:
Grace wrote on Aug 5, 2008 11:30 AM:
BIGDAR wrote on Aug 5, 2008 2:48 PM:
jomaj wrote on Aug 5, 2008 2:56 PM:
cobbwebber wrote on Aug 5, 2008 7:19 PM:
nipsey wrote on Aug 5, 2008 9:50 PM:
ucrackmeup wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:45 AM:
BIGDAR wrote on Aug 6, 2008 9:11 AM:
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