Pete Wittmann
Central 1967
Pete Wittmann, who successfully competed against AT&T telephone company, attributes his phenomenol success to a belief in himself, his best friend and luck. Left, Pete and his wife share a moment with Prince Charles. The couple were invited to Buckingham Palace after Pete donated $50,000 to the Prince Charles Foundation. "The affair was memorable," he says, "because it was the first time Camilla was allowed into the palace."
One day in 1988, Thomas Peter Wittmann, a Central High graduate, received an urgent call from his best friend and former college roommate, Kenny Troutt.
"Send me all your money," Kenny told Pete. "We're going to get mega-rich."
"How?" asked Pete.
"We're going into the long distance telephone business," answered Kenny.
"Do you know anything about it?" Pete asked his best friend.
"No," answered Kenny, "but I'll learn."
After the conversation, Pete took his life savings of $20,000 and combined it with $20,000 he borrowed on credit (at 18 percent interest) and immediately did as he was ordered.
Today Pete can do things like donate $50,000 to the Prince Charles Foundation, or closer to home, make the largest private donation ever recorded to Southern Illinois University, the college from which he graduated in 1971.
Meantime, his best friend, Kenny, is listed as the 300th richest person in the world.
Several years back, Kenny sold Excel, the long-distance telephone company he started and later merged with TeleGlobe and Bell Canada Enterprises, for $6 billion.
"I don't think my story is atypical," says Pete, who currently lives in Dallas, Texas, the home of his best friend Kenny, "but I don't think it could be duplicated in a million years. We ended up competing against AT&T and winning. The timing was everything; AT&T had just broken up into smaller parcels like Sprint and MCI, and we eventually got people to switch from those companies and use ours. We did it slowly, one city, one state, at a time."
Pete's gift to SIU was made to the athletic department and will pay for the creation of a spacious new high-tech training facility for intercollegiate student athletes. The building will be known as the Troutt-Wittman Center, bearing the names of Pete and his best friend Kenny. Pete and Kenny were also teammates on the Southern Illinois Salukis' football team in the late '60s.
Pete, who still serves on the Parkway Alumni Association board, is also very loyal to Parkway. He credits coach Jack Wells for instilling in him a sense of perseverance. And, of course, bigger than life, is former principal Al Burr. "I loved Al Burr," he says. "He was able to relate to me and the other students. I always felt privileged when he devoted time to me."
Pete is a regular supporter of his church and various community organizations, including the Alzheimer's Foundation, the Red Cross, the Shriners, cancer research and more. He is a member of the Parkway Alumni Association Honorary Board of Directors.
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