[4] Both his parents were journalists, his late father, Hubert Roussel, serving as drama, music and film critic for The Houston Post, 1933 to 1966.

During that time he reviewed and interviewed performing arts icons, Arthur Rubenstein, Marian Anderson, Van Cliburn, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, members of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and others.

His older brother, Hubert Roussel, Jr., enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II and as a member of a B-29 crew was lost on a mission in the Pacific on December 13, 1944, at age 20.

Dewey Roussel's story about her eldest son, "Message of the White Dove", appeared in the September 1985 issue of Reader's Digest.

In 2009 he was appointed to the Philip G. Warner Endowed Chair in Sam Houston State University's Department of Mass Communication, where he taught courses on public relations and press-presidency interactions.