Rollins, Inc (ROL) begins trading on the NYSE (pictured L to R: Randall Rollins; John Rollins; Robert Haack, president of NYSE; Wayne Rollins; Henry Tippie; Earl Geiger).

Throughout the 1930s, Orkin coworkers build a strong foundation of exceptional customer service and grow the company with personal touches. Letters between business leaders demonstrate Orkin’s dedication to providing outstanding service.

After concentrating for years on rodents and eventually insects, Orkin begins to advertise termite service.

Orkin opens the Atlanta office of Orkin Exterminating Company, Inc. and begins establishing operations in other major southeastern cities. The company introduces the Orkin diamond as its logo (newspaper advertisement pictured).

Otto Orkin, now known as “Otto the Rat Man,” opens his first office in Richmond, Va.

Otto Orkin, a Latvian immigrant to the United States, starts peddling rodenticides door-to-door.

Orkin’s parent company, Rollins, Inc., moves its headquarters from Wilmington, Del., to Atlanta, Ga. (O. Wayne Rollins pictured in front of new Atlanta headquarters).

Gary Rollins, son of O. Wayne Rollins and current Orkin president, COO and chairman of the board, joins the company as an Atlanta pest and termite sales inspector.

Led by founder O. Wayne Rollins, Rollins Broadcasting, Inc. (later known as Rollins, Inc.) purchases Orkin Exterminating Company for $62 million, seven times more than Rollins revenues at the time.

First Orkin television ad airs, featuring Otto the Orkin Man, a singing spray can, with one of the most recognized jingles in advertising history.

The U.S. War Manpower Commission declares pest control a “needed service;” Orkin provides pest control and fumigation for 150 military establishments (technicians rode bikes such as this one to deliver service, as gasoline was rationed).