Pest Management Professional, September 2017
2017 PMP HALL oF FAMe E d Martin one of two posthumous inductees in Pest Management Professional magazines Hall of Fame Class of 2017 had a long productive career After graduating from Louisiana State University LSU with a degree in agricultural entomology in 1958 he returned home to New Orleans and went to work for F N Pest Control Founded in 1947 as a local franchise in New Orleans Terminix Pest Control was only doing termite work In 1960 whats known today as Terminix Service Co Inc hired Martin away from F N to create a pest management division Its hard to believe but Martin stayed with Terminix of New Orleans until April 6 2016 when he died of a heart attack at age 80 The TermiTe experT In 1962 New Orleans Terminix franchisor Bill Brothers was ready to retire He asked Martin whether he wanted to purchase the business With a loan co signed by his father Ed Martin Sr Martin became the owner at the ripe old age of 27 becoming the youngest Terminix licensee in the nation While Martin was getting his feet wet as a Terminix owner his father was working as the public works director for New Orleans The elder Martins crews were replacing telephone poles throughout the city and they were finding bugs in those poles Martin took specimens from the poles to the LSU entomology department They soon determined that the bugs invading the New Orleans telephone poles were Formosan termites Coptotermes formosanus an aggressive species that entered the United States shortly after World War II PMP hall of fame 2017 Name Ed Martin CompaNY Terminix Service Co Inc TiTle Owner YearS iN peST maNaGemeNT 58 KeY poSiTioNS helD President of Louisiana Pest Management Association Greater New Orleans Pest Control Association and Terminix National Council Committee Chairman Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Formosan Termite Tree Program iNDUSTrY aChieVemeNTS Youngest Terminix franchisor growing it from six to 140 employees developed a fumigation soil treatment method to control Formosan termites Continued on Page 32 30 September 2017 Pest Management Professional mypmp net Photo courtesy of Joe Martin The fighter of Formosans ed martin spent a mere 56 years at Terminix and 58 years in the industry training and mentoring in termite and general pest control all along the way By Jerry Mix editor At Large martin points to a water line on a home illustrating the devastation hurricane Katrina caused
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