Engineering Firm Demonstrates Power of Family

A family-owned business is on its third generation

A Dallas engineering firm is true testament to the power of "family."

Erika Warren, 18, is still a senior in high school, but she is already learning the ropes at the 30-year-old firm.

It helps that her grandfather, Lucious L. Williams, the president and CFO of Dikita Enterprises, heads the company. His second-in-command is her mother, Eve Williams.

"I think I'm very fortunate, because other people don't have these kinds of opportunities," Warren said. "I have a set job opportunity; I know what I'm going to do."

Her grandfather said he had a vision, too, when he started the business.

"I was convinced that I wanted to be a millionaire, and I was convinced that I could be a millionaire," he said.

Williams started the firm in Milwaukee, but came to Dallas after he and his daughter determined Dallas would be a great place to launch this kind of business.

At the time, Eve Williams was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington. She said she is proud of what they've accomplished.

"For a professional engineering firm to exist for 30 years, an African-American firm, is just unprecedented," Williams said.

She and her father said they hope it continues for a few more decades with the next generation.

"That would be the legacy that I would like to leave -- that it would go from myself to my daughter, to my granddaughter," the elder Williams said.

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