COLUMBUS, Ind. — Ask kids what they want to be after growing up, and you might hear ballerina, rock star, astronaut, pro athlete or video game designer.
But few, if any, think about becoming a “termite exterminator.”
“Crawling under houses in the heat of the summer wasn’t my first choice,” said Steve Morrison, 67, a technician at Burt’s Termite & Pest Control. “Over 30 years ago, I said I’ll try it — and I’ve never looked back.”
Through decades of hard work, determination and perseverance, Morrison was chosen among 200 nominees across the country to be named the 2020 Termite Technician of the Year by “Pest Control Technology (PCT)” — a professional publication for the industry.
People like Morrison are extremely difficult to find, Burt’s Termite & Pest Control president Doug Foster said.
“It’s hard to find anyone who enjoys, or even tolerates, doing this kind of work,” Foster said. “First off, most people won’t even get into a crawl space. There’s not only bugs and spiders, but you get snakes, raccoons, possums and all kind of vermin in there.”
Morrison admits his childhood in the 1960s was anything but conventional. Up until his teen years, he lived in what was then called “Death Valley.” It was generally assumed that people lived in Death Valley (now Mill Race Park) because they couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. In most cases, the homes were tar paper shacks that often became partially submerged by floodwaters from the adjacent East Fork White River.
Living in Death Valley also carried a social stigma, Morrison recalls.
“Most of Columbus thought people who lived in Death Valley had the plague,” Morrison said.
His mother, who was about 35 years younger than his father, abandoned the family with five children in the house, Morrison said. His father, who was usually unemployed, was later determined to be unable to care for the kids, he said. Morrison was 13 when all the children in his home were sent to what was then called the Bartholomew County Children’s Home.
“When we first started living there, the orphanage wasn’t very good,” Morrison said. “Then, we got some good people in there to run the place and they cared about the kids. It made everybody have a more positive outlook.”
The caring administrators not only gave Morrison a more positive outlook on life, but also helped him develop a strong work ethic, according to Morrison’s wife, Sonnie Morrison.
“He also lived a few years with a foster family, which also helped him realize how you are supposed to work for what you get,” she said.
Before graduating from Columbus High School in 1971, Morrison was already working several hours a week at the former Mudd Furniture Store, then near the intersection of 14th and Sycamore streets.
One of his co-workers was David Burt, Jr. (1929-2013), who later founded Burt’s Termite & Pest Control. At that time, Burt was prohibited from working locally in pest control due to a two-year non-compete clause he had signed with a former employer, Morrison said.
Years later, after Burt’s Termite & Pest Control was founded, Morrison opened his own business called V&S Clocks and Antiques, located at 1254 Washington St. in the basement of the Rumple Building. Burt and Foster would frequently visit with Morrison as he was working.
Although there were often no replacement parts to make repairs to broken antiques and clocks, Morrison would keep attempting to shape what he needed with different material until he had precisely what he needed.
“Rather than give up, he kept plugging away,” Foster said in his interview with the PCT publication. “And the preciseness and attention to detail he displayed told me he would be a good technician.”
After Foster acquired the pest control business from Burt, he made a job offer to Morrison in 1988. While the idea “wasn’t too thrilling,” Morrison said he decided to accept Foster’s offer when he discovered he could earn more money, he said.
Foster warned it would take at least five years for Morrison to learn everything required to become an expert in pest control. But the new hire exceeded expectations when Morrison spent much of his own time studying material on his new job, Foster said.
As he climbed under houses, Morrison said he was able to tolerate bugs, spiders, snakes, raccoons and possums. But he admits that his early childhood in Death Valley, which was just across the river from a landfill, left him with one immense fear.
“Still to this day, I am scared to death of rats,” he said.
But what Morrison learned to appreciate about his job over time was conquering a good challenge. In his line of work, overcoming a challenge means finding the source of an infestation, learning how the insects are gaining access to a home, and discovering what attracted them in the first place.
The most daunting job he said he has undertaken involves termites that would annually show up around the interior fireplace of a home. While he sprayed the area annually, it took him years to figure out how the pests were getting inside.
Eventually, Morrison learned the termites had been able to crawl up the fireplace’s foundation and establish a nest in the water-damaged wood roof supports.
Over the decades, Morrison has gained a reputation for following up with clients, especially those with children, Sonnie Morrison said. In addition, he’s known to help out elderly or disabled customers in ways that have nothing to do with pest control. That might include changing a furnace filter or carrying out another brief maintenance chore, she said.
“He’s always willing to go the extra mile for his clients,” Sonnie Morrison said. “Sometimes, if somebody shows up at a home and it’s not Steve, they will ask for him by name because they know he always looks after their best interests.”
Like most industries, pest control has gotten high-tech in the 21st Century, Foster said. The company president said his staff uses computer software to help them track down the source of an infestation, as well as determine the best way to eradicate the problem.
The younger technicians had wondered how a 67-year-old man will deal with modern technology, Morrison said.
“But he picked right up on the use of the smart phones, tablets and connectivity issues,” Foster said. “Sometimes, he figures this stuff out in his head quicker than the younger guys with computers.”
In terms of community involvement, Foster and Morrison volunteered their time and efforts with the remodeling of Brighter Days, a facility on South Mapleton Street that provides temporary shelter and housing assistance.
It was during that remodeling that Morrison used his skills as both a termite technician and restoration specialist, he said.
“It makes you feel good when you can give back and help others,” says Morrison. “Working on the remodeling project had special meaning for me since I grew up in similar circumstances and know how it feels to have nothing.”
The company will usually acknowledge a employee whenever the work has been done well and the worker gets a positive review, Foster said.
But finding out a co-worker has been named best in his field by a national trade publication took other Burt employees by surprise.
“Others have certainly taken notice, Foster said. “The other guys didn’t even know there were national awards for this line of work.”
