December 2016 | Business View Magazine

104 105 tri StAte tOwer “Going above and beyond”has always been the guiding ethos of Tri State Tower, the Marion, Iowa-based company that was founded by Rick Ellison in 1991, and today has grown into one of the premier wireless and telecommunications companies in the Midwest.“The business began with painting radio communication towers,” says Diek Brunscheen, company COO.“Whenever Rick was out, going from one painting job to another, he would travel through small towns with grain oper- ators.He would stop in the office and drop off a business card, maybe sell them on inspecting the steel, that sort of thing.” As Ellison’s network of small-town grain elevators and radio communication towers grew, so did the telecommunications and wireless industry.“The first large contract Rick was ever awarded was with Motorola, and from there it just kept evolv- ing,”Brunscheen relates.“But Rick never turned his back on the two-way companies or the broadcast stations. So,Tri State has always had a diverse clientele base.When there were slow pockets of work on the wireless side, there was always the Tri State Tower Going above and beyond