DIXON – Brett Keith took Dixon to Wall Street, where the young financial whiz and former Dixon High School tennis star started his own private equity firm.

The 1990 Dixon High School graduate obtained a master's degree in business administration from Harvard, then co-founded RockWood Equity Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on acquiring lower-middle-market companies.

For all his success, the Dixon Main Street board honored Keith for giving his home city a good name elsewhere.

This award is for "honoring someone just like Ronald Reagan, who grew up in the area, moved away and started doing something extraordinary with their careers," Main Street President Josh Albrecht said.

"I recall my time in Dixon with fondness," Keith said. "I come back as often as I can to visit."

Seven years after obtaining his MBA, Keith commuted weekly between New York, where he lives, and Minneapolis, where he taught a master's business class at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of St. Thomas.

He is on the board of directors of multiple RockWood portfolio companies and is a member of the New York chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.

He serves on the advisory board of Granite Equity Partners, a St. Cloud, Minn.-based private equity firm, and is a member of the Founder's Circle of Cycle for Survival, a cancer research fundraising group.

He also is part owner of Timber Creek.