Pushing for professionalism

Ted Oser

Every year, Pest Management Professional (PMP) honors a posthumous candidate as a way of keeping the past alive for the industry. While Theodore Oser (1904-1986) is hardly a household name today, in the 1940s he seemed to be a beloved figure among pest management professionals (PMPs).

Just as the industry heaved a sigh of relief over being considered “essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oser and fellow PMP Hall of Famer Bill Buettner (Class of 1998) worked tirelessly to get it considered “essential” in the 1940s, at the height of World War II. This meant that in an era when gasoline, sugar and many other things we take for granted were being rationed, and men of all stripes were being drafted into war, the pest control industry was granted immunity from such things. Only the pest control and the mortuary industries had such status.

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES

Through his mother, Bertha, Oser was the nephew of fellow PMP Hall of Famer Otto Orkin (Class of 1999), the powerhouse behind Atlanta, Ga.-based Orkin Pest Control. Oser was born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, but at age 12 was sent to work at Uncle Otto’s pest control company, which was then based in Richmond, Va. In addition to being active in the National Pest Control Association (NPCA), the name of the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) at the time, Oser rose in the ranks to become VP of what was then known as Orkin Exterminating.

In October 1944, during the annual conference in Chicago, Ill., he was elected president of the NPCA, which The Times of Shreveport, La., characterized at the time as having “an international membership of over 600.” He holds the distinction of being the first NPCA president to be re-elected; he served in 1944-45 and 1945-46.

ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM

PMP HALL OF FAME

Oser did whatever he could to ensure revenue growth for Orkin Exterminating. Per The Ratcatcher’s Child, the seminal book of industry history written by fellow PMP Hall of Famer Dr. Robert Snetsinger (Class of 2018), “In 1925, Orkin was recommended by a former Richmondite to bid on a government rat control contract at Mussel Shoals, Ala., where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were constructing Wilson Dam. Otto and Ted Oser visited the site, got the contract for $380 a month, and on the return trip, stopped in Atlanta, Ga. They found no exterminators listed in the Atlanta City Directory and decided to open an office there.”

In 1939, Oser relocated from Richmond to Atlanta and took over general operations for his uncle. Orkin was opening branch offices across the southeastern U.S., but each was operating as its own company. Otto Orkin wanted to bring some cohesion to all the offices and create the “Orkin System.” As a result, Oser spent the next decade traveling to the branch locations, consolidating management and centralizing Orkin’s billing process for national accounts.

Not much is known about Oser’s career after his NPCA presidency, aside from him ensuring that Buettner went from being a volunteer for the association to a paid full-time secretary, the equivalent of an executive director today. The Rollins family purchased Orkin in 1964, and the majority of the Orkin family left the pest control business. Some longtime PMPs today recall seeing Oser and his brother Morris at conferences in the 1960s and 1970s.

His brief obituary in a 1986 issue of Pest Control magazine, PMP’s legacy name, mentions he owned a waterproofing company in Atlanta at the time of his death. He left behind a wife, a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. We salute Oser today for his contributions to Orkin Pest Control, the NPMA, and the industry at large.