Roy Wilkens, EE’66, and Mario A. Padilla, MetE’60, worked for years to challenge and change the status of the telecommunications industry in the early to mid 1990s.
Wilkens, founder, president and CEO of telecommunications company WilTel, worked to challenge and outpace the “big three” at the time of AT&T, MCI and Sprint. His 3,500 employees worked with business communications to provide network solutions. “All I had was a gimmick to start out with, and that was putting fiber inside a pipe,” says Wilkens about his fiber-optics cable project that turned into a company.
Padilla was vice president of new markets business development for AT&T in Morristown, N.J. He stated in 1993 to Missouri S&T Magazine that “we have come to the age of The Jetsons,” when referring to a communications revolution that would affect our life as dramatically as interstate highways or televisions.
For some, it is hard to imagine a life without the communication devices we have today, but perhaps future Miners can pick up the mantle of the two and continue to develop new technologies.
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
Hall of fame astronaut
Janet Kavandi, former deputy director at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and a NASA astronaut, has logged more than 33 days…
Suzanna Long: An ‘80s alumna remembers
Engineering management Chair Suzanna Long, who holds four degrees from the university...
From uranium to wine
Richard K. Vitek, a 1958 chemistry graduate, began his career as a research chemist producing uranium from ore, before moving…
Miner athletics’ biggest fan
Keith Bailey, a 1964 mechanical engineering graduate, transformed a company and then transformed S&T athletics. He joined Williams Co. in…
Bringing it all together
Before retiring, civil engineering graduate John Mathes headed his own multidisciplinary engineering business that specialized in high-profile contamination projects. In…
Supporting female faculty at S&T
When she established the Woman of the Year award at Missouri S&T, Cindy Tang, a 1985 economics graduate, wanted to…