PROFESSIONAL | BUSINESS
ROGER MUSICK Mitchell, SD
Communications Hardware & Software Creator Roger was born in Mitchell, SD, to Ira and Maxine Musick. He was the second of four children and grew up in a middle-class family with a hard-working father who drove a truck and mother who worked part time and encouraged education. Starting in the fifth grade, Roger had two paper routes and earned his own spending money. Roger's uncle, Lyle Storla, was an early mentor who stimulated an interest in electronics, and by the time Roger was in junior high, he knew that he would go to SDSM&T and major in Electrical Engineering. Roger got his amateur radio license in junior high, and throughout high school, he worked after school at Electronics Supply, rebuilding TV picture tubes and repairing TVs. In high school, Roger passed the First Class FCC license which was required to operate a TV or radio station. Roger was the first member of his family to attend college, and he paid his own way with his savings. During his time at SDSM&T, he worked part time in Rapid City operating a TV station and a radio station and working at a two-way radio company. Roger graduated from SDSM&T in 1971 as an electrical engineer. He and almost all those who graduated with him thought they would move to California or Texas and work in the electronics industry. After a couple of interview trips, Roger quickly decided those places had far too many people and too much concrete — he wanted to stay in South Dakota instead. He enrolled in a Master’s program that would start
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2018 HONORS CEREMONY
in the fall to eventually become a consultant, but little did he know that a summer job offer from Doug Martin in his hometown of Mitchell would change all that. Roger spent the summer helping Doug Martin design telephone systems at Martin and Associates, and at the end of the summer, he decided to stay. It was a perfect position which allowed him to use his engineering degree and further his interest in electronics and new technologies. In 1974, Martin and Associates was reorganized, and Roger became a professional engineer and equal partner with Doug Martin and Harvey Kelly, and later Keith Bartels. During the 70s, Martin and Associates designed the majority of the communications networks in South Dakota and Iowa, and during the 80s, they deployed hundreds of new digital switches in the Midwest. They also designed the first major state-wide fiber networks in South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota which were owned by the independent communications companies. A life-changing event for Roger was seeing the Altair 8800 kit computer on the cover of Popular Electronics in January of 1975. The cost was $439, and there was no doubt that he was getting one. Roger spent the next five years learning computers and programming in his spare time. The Altair computer was just a toy, but Roger learned software and in a few years purchased a DEC computer. In the evenings, he wrote a telephone billing system for Midstate Telephone Company. This billing system,
