VIEWPOINT: A Celebration Of Pest Management

This month’s PCT is all about celebrating the structural pest management industry. First, as you can see on the cover, PCT honors its 20th Annual Professional of the Year. This award began in 1983 with the recognition of Richard Blewitt, vice president of corporate affairs for Velsicol Chemical Corp., Chicago, Ill. This year, we honor Bobby Corrigan, a respected professional who has touched the lives of so many of our readers. Whether you read Bobby’s column in PCT or have seen him speak at one of the countless conferences he attends throughout the year, I don’t think there’s a person in the industry who is more well respected.

Second, PCT honors a trio of service technicians — Rebecca Cade, Cook’s Pest Control, Memphis, Tenn.; Steve Rogers, Presto-X-Company, Denison, Iowa; and, Tim Hunt, Hunt’s Pest Control, Lehi, Utah — as 2002 PCT/Syngenta Professional Products Technicians of the Year. This program, now in its seventh year, recognizes the efforts of the personnel that help make your business run smoothly every day — service technicians. They are truly the backbone of this essential service industry.

Finally, we feature a supplement that celebrates Terminix International’s 75th anniversary. It’s quite an accomplishment for a company to reach its 75th birthday — and when the company is the largest pest control firm in the U.S., we knew it was a milestone that needed to be recognized in PCT.

The diversity of the people and companies highlighted in this issue proves how vital everyone in the industry is to its success. People at all levels are required to make the industry work. Big or small, local or national, each of your firms represents an important piece of the $6 billion pest management industry. This December issue of PCT recognizes just a few of these contributors. Our Professional of the Year is a respected member of the industry who formerly worked at several pest control firms — and who is now "out on his own" as a consultant. The Technicians of the Year work at three very different (translated: big and small) pest control companies. And finally, we recognize a significant milestone for the nation’s largest firm. Congratulations to all!

PCT needs your help with some upcoming issues. I hope after you read the stories in the Technician of the Year supplement you’ll be moved to nominate someone from your company for this honor. The nomination form will appear in the May issue of PCT magazine. Or, if you can’t wait until next spring, the form is online at www.pctonline.com/awards.

I also ask you to once again sharpen your pencils in preparation for another special issue. Keep an eye out for next month’s PCT, which will feature a form for PCT’s Top 100, a list of the 100 largest pest management firms. The inaugural list ran this January but we’ve delayed sending out the forms for 2003’s list until January so that we can include PCOs’ 2002 year-end numbers. Thank you in advance!

The author is editor of PCT magazine.