When Mississippi State University alumnus Steve “Duke” Pigott took his final steps onto the summit of Mount Everest this past May, the wind was sharp, the sky was endless and the world stretched out far below. That moment marked the completion of a dream nearly two decades in the making — finishing the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each continent.

Born and raised in Jackson, Pigott, nicknamed “Duke,” graduated from MSU in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. He then attended Duke University for graduate school, where he earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.

Pigott’s engineering background led to an impressive career at Lockheed Martin, where he served as Director of Middle East Programs, Director of Asia-Africa Programs and later as Director of F-35 International Business Development. Even with a demanding career, his passion for exploration has never faded. 

Pigott said he has always been curious about the world. Engineering gave him a fulfilling career, but climbing gave him a whole new perspective.

He said that he braved the first of the Seven Summits in 2008. At the time, he was chief of his local volunteer fire department, which was separate from his full-time job with Lockheed Martin. Pigott spoke about his motivations for making this climb, connected to his job with the fire department.

“I was looking for ways to promote firefighter fitness, so I thought I’d try to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, in firefighter gear,” Pigott said. 

He only planned to try it once, with no intention of climbing more. But after his first attempt was successful, he decided that he wanted to climb Mount Elbrus in Europe, once again in gear.  

“That one was also successful, so I had two of the Seven complete,” Pigott said. 

After that, his mountaineering interest took off. Between work and life, Pigott began training and climbing across Europe, taking on iconic peaks in Switzerland like the Matterhorn and the Eiger. In 2014, he summited Aconcagua in South America. He climbed some more in the Swiss Alps for a few years, but followed it by climbing Denali in Alaska in 2018 and Mount Vinson in Antarctica on New Year’s Day in 2019.

Pigott met his close friend and underwater archeology partner, Thomas Levy, several years ago while preparing for a trek across the Sinai desert in Jordan, one of Levy’s main research areas. The two bonded over their shared passion for the deserts of the Middle East. For the past four years, Pigott has volunteered to join in almost all of Levy’s underwater projects.

Levy, who founded and co-directs the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability at the University of California San Diego, spoke about Pigott’s character.

“I was impressed with Duke as a person of integrity and a passion for exploration,” Levy said. 

Levy further explained how Pigott has worked alongside him.

“Duke has the mind and talents of an engineer, a heart of gold and the kind of dependability and teamwork ethic that are essential for scientific exploration today,” Levy said.  

After these underwater archaeology adventures, Pigott had planned to ski to the North Pole in April 2019 and attempt Everest the following year in April 2020. But the North Pole plans got derailed year after year for a number of reasons, from issues with the pilots who were supposed to drop him and his crew on the icepack to Covid restrictions on the Arctic island. Later issues occurred because of the Russia-Ukraine war. Every time the North Pole got kicked back a year, so did Everest. Eventually, Pigott decided to shift his focus solely to conquering Everest rather than trying to ski the North Pole first.

Meanwhile, Duke attempted to get a permit to climb Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain in Indonesia and the continent of Oceania. However, the country halted climbing there for several years due to civil unrest in the area around the mountain. 

Despite this struggle, Pigott was able to achieve that goal this year.

“Finally, this year, we were able to secure a permit for Carstensz, and I climbed it in March,” Pigott said. “Then, I followed it up in May with a summit of Everest and the completion of the Seven Summits.”

Pigott hiked Everest with Dean Poulakidas, an aviation finance lawyer from San Francisco who met Pigott on the Everest expedition. Poulakidas spoke about the impact Pigott had the exploration.

“Duke was the perfect team member on our expedition,” Poulakidas said. “Positivity is essential to get through really difficult days and weeks on the mountain, and Duke’s positivity was a boost for all of us.”

Pigott explained that he felt accomplished but also lucky to be able to climb all seven summits.

“Completing Everest and the Seven Summits was a wonderful feeling. It’s such a huge commitment in time and energy, and when you get on the mountain, there are so many things that can go wrong to end your climb – illness, injury, bad weather. So in addition to all the training and preparation, you also need a little luck to be successful,” Pigott said. “So I feel very blessed that I was able to get up, and more importantly, get down the mountain.”

His adventures sometimes took him uncomfortably close to global conflict. 

“The craziest things I’ve seen were due to regional conflicts and weren’t all necessarily related to climbing expeditions,” Pigott said. “I was on a camel expedition in the Sinai Desert in 2017 and missed by an hour an ISIS attack that tragically killed a number of Egyptian soldiers.”

He was also in Israel to excavate a Phoenician shipwreck on Oct. 7, 2023, when he awoke to missiles overhead from the Hamas attack and had to subsequently find a way out of the country. 

Looking back, he says the mountains taught him more than any textbook ever could.

“For me, the most important lesson from my expeditions has definitely been to not let setbacks keep you from moving forward,” Pigott said. “There are always going to be problems that arise, often things beyond your control, and sometimes they will disrupt — or even end — an expedition.” 

He explains that this can be extremely disheartening, especially if it is something you are mentally and emotionally invested in, and you put great effort into. 

“But the most important thing is to not dwell on these setbacks and as soon as possible to start planning your next attempt,” Pigott said.

Now retired, he splits his time between mountaineering and archaeology, joining digs across the Middle East or underwater excavation teams around the world.

He was able to retire a few years ago so that he could pursue personal interests that center mostly around mountain climbing and archaeology, both land-based and underwater. During any given year, you can find him on a mountain somewhere, or on a dig in the Middle East.

Even after summiting the tallest peaks on Earth, he is still grounded in where it all began.

“No matter where I’ve gone in the world, for me, there’s still no place that compares to Mississippi,” Pigott said.