The PMP Hall of Fame

Pest Management Professional (PMP) magazine is pleased to announce its 21st class of Hall of Fame inductees. The PMP Hall of Fame was created in 1996, with its first class inducted in 1997, to recognize the many leaders and pioneers — both contemporary and from generations past — in the professional pest management industry.

This year, the Hall of Fame nominating committee chose five inductees, as follows:

Dr. John Klotz, urban entomology specialist emeritus of the University of California-Riverside. In addition to teaching and mentoring students who have risen through the ranks of the professional pest management industry, Dr. Klotz has conducted invaluable research on ant control over his storied career. Although he now resides in Arizona with his wife, Jennifer, enjoying retirement, he is still a go-to presenter who most recently spoke last May at the jointly held National Conference on Urban Entomology and Invasive Fire Ant Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.

Ed Martin is one of two posthumous inductees this year — although his name was near the top of the list of possible honorees for many years beforehand. Before his death in 2016 at age 80, Martin was a longtime advocate for professional pest management training (especially in termites) for his home state of Louisiana. In 1962, Martin bought New Orleans-based Terminix Service Co., becoming the youngest Terminix licensee in the nation. He built-up the company for more than 50 years.

Roland Rhodes is one of two posthumous inductees this year — although like Ed Martin, he has been on the short list of honoree possibilities for many years. He retired from Rhodes Chemical on his 88th birthday in June 2015, passing away less than six weeks later. He and his wife, Winona, had founded the company in 1962. In addition to being a premier industry distributor to pest professionals throughout the Midwest, Rhodes was an advocate for industry education. He and Winona established an endowment program at Purdue University, and provided scholarships for the University of Illinois, University of Missouri, Kansas State University, University of Nebraska and Iowa State University to honor Fred Clute, one of their first employees.

Entomologist Chuck Steinmetz has been a fixture in the pest management industry since his career began at Orkin in 1961. He is perhaps best remembered for his leadership and 1982 sale of All America Termite and Pest Control, at the time the largest privately owned pest management company in the nation with 125 locations. He is also known for his emphasis on industry education — which included a $5 million endowment program at his alma mater, the University of Florida. Currently, Steinmetz is a partner in Safer Home Services, where he is known as the “inventor of once-a-year-pest control.”

Billy Tesh is the owner of both Greensboro, N.C.-based Pest Management Systems Inc., as well as crawlspace insulation and encapsulation product supplier Crawlspace Depot. Tesh got started in the industry at the tender age of 14 — thanks to a technician gig with his uncle’s firm, Tesh Pest Control — and has been active on the national and state levels for both industry advocacy and best business practices. Tesh also is well known for his philanthropy, which includes Habitat for Humanity, the Autism Society of North Carolina, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Operation Smile, USO-NC, and the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, just to name a few.

These five outstanding professionals will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at a black-tie, invitation-only event in Baltimore Oct. 23, the night before the National Pest Management Association’s (NPMA’s) annual PestWorld conference. In addition, biographical plaques of each will join other PMP Hall of Famers on the walls of Purdue University’s Smith Hall.

Please join us in congratulating our 21st class of the PMP Hall of Fame. You’ll learn more about these five titans of industry as the months progress. If you have memories and stories to share about any of them, please email pmpeditor@northcoastmedia.net. As for the 20 previous classes of PMP Hall of Famers, you can read about their lives and industry contributions at PMPHallofFame.net.

We’re currently accepting nominations for the Class of 2018 and beyond. You may nominate a pest management professional of any walk of life — business owner, technician, researcher, manufacturer, etc. — at https://pmphalloffame.com/nominate-someone.

Our PMP Hall of Fame event would not be possible without the generous contributions of our sponsors: BASF Pest Control Solutions, Bug Off Pest Control Center, Control Solutions Inc. (CSI), J.T. Eaton & Co., Kness Manufacturing, MGK, Oldham Chemicals Co., Purdue University, Rockwell Labs Ltd, ServicePro and WorkWave.

Dr. Vernard Lewis, Dick Sameth, Larry Treleven and the late Vern Toblan were inducted into the PMP Hall of Fame Oct. 17 at the Sheraton Seattle.

PMP would like to thank our sponsors for making this year’s Hall of Fame event a success: Platinum Sponsor Bug Off Pest Control Center, Cocktail Reception Sponsor J.T. Eaton & Co. and Gold Sponsors BASF, Control Solutions Inc. (CSI), MGK, Oldham Chemicals, PestPac by WorkWave, Purdue University, Rockwell Labs and ServicePro.

The PMP Hall of Fame Class of 2016: Dr. Vernard Lewis; Larry Treleven; Blair and Brenna Toblan, who accepted on behalf of their father, Vern Toblan; and Dick Sameth.

The 2016 class of Pest Management Professional’s (PMP’s) Hall of Fame was honored at a black-tie ceremony Oct. 17 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel in Seattle on the eve of the National Pest Management Association‘s 2016 PestWorld.

This year, four industry icons joined the ranks of 83 other members of the PMP Hall of Fame, which was established in 1997 to recognize the many leaders and pioneers — both contemporary and from generations past — in the pest management industry.

Inductees include Dr. Vernard Lewis, University of California — Berkley, Richard Sameth, retired, Western Pest Services, Vern Toblan (deceased), Pi Chi Omega, and Lawrence Treleven, Sprague Pest Solutions.

The evening’s first honoree was Dr. Vernard Lewis, who currently serves as Cooperative Extension Entomologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He’s been involved in the pest management industry for 35 years. Before his post as an entomology professor, Dr. Lewis was pest management department head at San Quentin Prison and owner of IPM Systems.

During his acceptance speech, Dr. Lewis thanked his Nana and Pop in Fresno; his parents for teaching him responsibility; his 9 brothers and sisters, who taught him how to cooperate and negotiate; his Aunt Ethel, who let him sleep on her couch for two years while he attended college; and Berkley, for “three degrees and a job.”

He said, “I had this tremendous network of industry and academics…thank you for supporting my career.” He then thanked his wife, Dr. Lisa Kala, saying, “She’s here today, she’s always been there with me.” He also thanked his daughter, grandson and the relatives who remind him “there’s more to life than just work.”

The evening’s next inductee was Dick Sameth, who worked for the family business, Western Pest Services, his entire pest management career. Sameth is a second-generation PMP Hall of Famer — his father, J.E. Sameth, was inducted in 1998. He retired as vice president of Western Pest Services after 49 years, but not before he, and brother and company president Bob Sameth, helped grow Western Pest Services into one of the largest pest management companies in the countries. The family sold their business to Rollins Inc. long before mergers and acquisitions were common in the pest management industry.

“When [PMP Editor] Heather Gooch called me to tell me I’d been selected to be inducted in the Hall of Fame, I was overwhelmed,” he said. “Hard for me to believe that, 18 years ago, I received this award for my father, J.E. Sameth.” Sameth acknowledged his wife, Polly, who could not attend, as well as valued colleagues in the pest management industry.

He continued, “Due to my dad’s involvement and my age, I find myself to be a link between the founding fathers of our industry and today’s leaders who have very abley continued the willingness to share their philosophy.”

Larry Treleven, co-owner and co-president of Sprague Pest Solutions, has been in the pest management field for 45 years. At Sprague, he’s been a technician, sales associate and branch manager and now splits management duties with brother, Alfie Treleven.

Looking on as Treleven was inducted into the Hall of Fame were 13 members of his family, including his wife, Jane, his children and his infant grandson and granddaughter.

He thanked the family and the company for making it possible to serve the industry, which took time away from the company. He also thanked his fellow Class of 2016 inductees, with whom he worked over the years.

“We also are so appreciative of all of you. This business is so relationship-driven. It’s all about the people, because it’s the people that deliver the service, it’s the people that work with you and your teams, and it’s the people that are our clients. So we have to remember that,” he said. “We have to nurture it, like we’re planting seeds for the future, because we are.”

Posthumous inductee Vern Toblan was instrumental in guiding industry fraternity Pi Chi Omega into the 21st century. He took immense pride in his work for the fraternity, and his enthusiasm was contagious. His daughter Brenna and son Blair were on hand on their father’s behalf.

In a moving speech, Brenna told the crowd, which included many Pi Chi Omega members, “It’s been very moving to hear all the kind words everyone has had to say about our dad. We really didn’t know, from our perspective, just how involved he was in the industry.”

Son Blair concurred, saying, “My father didn’t just have a passion for the pest control industry, he had a passion for life. He was tremendously honored to be a part of the industry.” He thanked Heidi Ross, Toblan’s longtime partner who was unable to attend the ceremony, as well as those in the industry who knew him.

“Nothing would make him happier than this group gathered together, thinking of the good times that you all experienced with him,” he said.

The PMP Hall of Fame induction ceremony is an annual event. To nominate a someone in the pest management industry, submit a nomination form.

Managing Editor Diane Sofranec can be reached at dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3793.

Larry Treleven has spent practically his entire life serving in leadership roles, from his family company’s board of directors to the president of the NPMA.

By his own account, Larry Treleven has been associated with the pest management industry in some way since he “was old enough to fog a mirror.” And maybe even longer than that when you consider, after his birth in 1948, he was driven home from the hospital in his father’s Sprague Pest Solutions service vehicle.

“I joined Sprague on April Fool’s Day of 1971,” Treleven adds. “And my dad liked to make a big deal of that.”

In his early role as a technician with the Tacoma, Wash.-based company, Treleven serviced bars, hotels and restaurants, doing ant, flea and termite inspections.

Now, decades later, Treleven is vice president and co-owns Sprague with his brother, Alfie. He’s also served on the Sprague board of directors for 45 years. But none of this landed in Larry Treleven’s lap: He earned his place in the company after also serving as a Sprague sales associate and a branch manager.

“I wore all kinds of hats doing different jobs at Sprague because we only had three other people in the company,” he says.

One leader, multiple honors

Treleven greets retired CEO (and fellow Hall of Famer) Bob Rosenberg at PestWorld.
Photo: Larry Treleven

Treleven held the president’s position for a number of years before stepping back to divide the responsibilities of running the company with Alfie.

“During these years, I was also president of the Washington State Pest Control Association on four separate occasions and president of the Oregon Pest Control Association,” Treleven says, adding that he continues to serve on those governing boards as well as the board for the Environmental Care Association of Idaho. In Colorado, he sits on the state association’s Government Affairs Committee.

That’s an impressive list of roles to have played, but if you know of Treleven, it’s probably because he was president of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) from 1994 to 1995.

“I’ve served in every leadership role in the national association since I became involved with it in 1972,” he says.

One might consider that to be enough governing roles in pest management to fill three lifetimes — but wait! There’s more. Treleven is also recognized as a founding member of the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA) and continues to serve as a state public affairs representative (SPAR) of NPMA for Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

A new direction

Treleven jokes around in the Sprague home office parking lot.
Photo: Larry Treleven

However, despite being peripherally connected to the pest industry since his ride home from the hospital, for years Treleven set his sights on a far different future.

Growing up in the north end of Tacoma, Treleven attests to having an idyllic childhood — boating on Puget Sound, enjoying summers at his grandfather’s beach in Gig Harbor and playing sports. During this time, Treleven was attending St. Edwards Seminary where he considered becoming a Catholic priest.

“But after all of those years of Catholic school, I decided I didn’t want to be a priest and registered at the ‘pagan’ institution of the University of Washington (UW),” Treleven teases. “It blew my mother’s mind that I would go there, coming from a priesthood education.”

While mulling over the idea of becoming a teacher, Treleven was working part-time for the family business — one his grandfather, A.H. Treleven Sr., purchased in 1931 from founder W.B. Sprague. His father, A.H. Treleven Jr., joined in 1937.

“I thought it was interesting, going to all the food processing plants, mills and factories,” Treleven says. “I’d get immediate gratification because we would be able to solve so many problems for people. Many of those people weren’t just our clients, they were also our friends in the community.”

The business of people

The Treleven family at a recent get-together.

When his father encouraged Treleven to get involved with the Washington State Pest Control Association, the Pacific Northwest Pest Management Conference and the National Pest Control Association (now, the NPMA), he found that encouragement and inspiration was all around him.

He cites fellow Pest Management Professional Hall of Famers Norman Cooper (1999), John Cook Sr. (2015), and Red Tindol (2000) among many of the strong influences and mentors along the way that helped guide him in the industry.

“I recognized that the industry is full of good people and I wanted to remain a part of it,” he says.

So he did. And now, Treleven — like many of the professionals who inspired him — is working to bring others into the fold. In fact, he counts this among his greatest achievements in the industry, a fact that’s especially significant when you consider his above-mentioned resume.

“Recruiting and nurturing great people in our industry is important to me,” Treleven says. “There’s a lot of satisfaction in realizing that we’ve inspired and encouraged some of the fourth generation of our family to join the organization.

“There’s a certain amount of family pride in having an organization run for 90 years,” he concludes. “To know that when my turn is up, that the legacy will continue in capable caring hands with the fourth generation — that’s a special thing.”

Senior editor Will Nepper can be reached at wnepper@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3775.

Dick Sameth, who helped Western Pest Services become the company it is today, is PMP’s first second-generation Hall of Famer — his father, J.E. Sameth, was inducted in 1998.

You might say Dick Sameth was born into the pest management profession. He and his brother Bob picked up where his father, grandfather and aunt left off.
Photo: John Eisinger

In 1928, their father, J.E. Sameth, launched Western Pest Services with their grandfather Maurice and Aunt Ailene. When J.E. retired in 1998 (the year the then-91-year-old was inducted into the PMP Hall of Fame), he left the company in the capable hands of sons Dick, who served as vice president; Bob, who was president; and daughter Jeanne Burke, the company’s corporate secretary.

A family affair

Dick Sameth got into the family business in 1955, handling termite jobs while in high school. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in zoology. He then went to the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration to earn his bachelor’s of arts degree in business administration.

Sameth says he liked the social interaction with customers and his fellow employees. At the time, many workers emigrated from Scotland and settled in New Jersey. They found work at the Nairn Linoleum factory in Kearny, near Western’s office.

“We were able to hire some very hardworking, loyal people,” he recalls. “They were still there when I started work in 1960, but they were just phasing out. They were the backbone of the company, and they were wonderful people.”

Western has always had a reputation for hiring dedicated, loyal employees. Sameth attributes the low turnover to excellent supervision and training.

Dick Sameth (far right) poses on the “Freshman Fence” with his parents in 1955, the year he entered Dartmouth College.
Photo: Dick Sameth

“Dad was the driving force on that in our company,” Sameth says. “He thoroughly believed in it.”

The company assigned one supervisor for every seven technicians. The supervisor’s sole job was to go out in the field and help new employees as well as long-time employees.

“We spent a lot of money as well as time, and that kept our employee turnover down,” Sameth says. “It also kept our customer turnover down.”

Western continued to grow, servicing customers in New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania. It established a distribution company in 1946 and a fumigation division in 1983. Before long, it was one of the largest pest management firms in the country.

The company’s success made it attractive to firms looking to merge, and that’s exactly what happened in 2004. Rollins Inc. came calling, making Western a wholly owned subsidiary.

“That was really the start of it all,” Sameth says. “Now you see mergers of companies, mergers of suppliers.”

Sameth retired from Western in 2004. He still keeps up with the industry, however, attending association meetings about every other year.

Serving the industry

Sameth says he enjoyed being involved in the political side of the pest management industry, and his prominent involvement was another factor in his inclusion in the PMP Hall of Fame.

In the 1970s, when the National Pest Control Association (now the National Pest Management Association, or NPMA) staff did not have strong government ties, he worked with fellow PMP Hall of Famers Bob Russell, director of government relations at Orkin (1997) and Charlie Hromada, vice president of government relations for Terminix International (1998) to ensure the U.S. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) would not hamper pest management efforts.

Boating is one of Dick and Polly Sameth’s favorite pastimes.
Photo: Dick Sameth

“I worked with them for three or four years; we would meet in Washington, D.C., or talk on the phone all the time,” Sameth recalls. “Both companies [Orkin and Terminix] had a lot of interest in making sure the regulations that were put forth were in the best interest of not only our industry, but the public as well.”

Sameth was elected president of the NPMA for the 1996-1997 term. Under his watch, the NPMA returned policy-making powers to the board of directors, implemented a joint state partnership campaign to help boost membership, and mounted a public awareness campaign.

While at the NPMA, he worked closely with Ward Combs, the founder of Presto-X, and Larry Treleven, co-owner of Sprague Pest Solutions and a fellow 2016 PMP Hall of Fame inductee. At the end of his tenure, Sameth left the NPMA with a surplus of funds — a feat not accomplished in years.

Sameth is quick to point out that he was able to participate in industry activities so fully because of his brother’s hard work in keeping Western thriving during his absences. It should come as no surprise, then, that what Sameth says he enjoys most about the pest management industry is the willingness of people to exchange information among one another.

“Even competitors share information. It was true in my dad’s time, it was true when I was working, and it’s true today,” he adds. “There are a lot of great people in the industry.”

Now that he’s retired, Sameth splits his time between Mantoloking, N.J. and Vero Beach, Fla., where he enjoys sailing, boating, fishing and biking. He keeps busy by staying involved. For instance, he’s vice president of the Moorings Yacht & Country Club. He also spends time with wife Polly, their two sons, two daughters and six grandchildren.

Managing Editor Diane Sofranec can be reached at dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net or 216-706-3793.