We Took Our Entire Team To The Dominican Republic To Celebrate! Celebrating 75 Years As A Family-Owned KC Business
This is a big year for us! Celebrating 75 Years As A Family-Owned KC Business.
We’re not only celebrating our 75th anniversary, but we also traveled to the Dominican Republic in January to celebrate in style! All members of our team – as long as they’d been working at the company for longer than six months – were invited to join our all-expenses paid vacation to an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana, DR – AND bring a guest!
This is actually a tradition that we do just about every five years to celebrate our landmark anniversary dates. To celebrate our 70th year in business, we took a team vacation to an all-inclusive resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. For our 65th anniversary, we celebrated at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. Prior to those trips, we took our team on two cruises in the early 2000s.
We have multiple team members who’ve worked for Gunter for over 20 years, but only three of those team members have been on all five company vacations!
We feel very lucky that we’ve always prioritized a family-like team atmosphere. Not many Kansas City companies have made it to 75 years.
Honored as one of Ingram’s Magazine’s “Milestones” Companies
According to Ingram’s Magazine, “In any given year, nearly 600,000 U.S. businesses fail. What did it take to do that? Tenacity is part of it. Another: Family considerations—successive generations committed to the cause of building on what Mom and Dad, the grandparents or long-gone ancestors left in their wake. Good luck plays a hand. Bankers willing to work with them through hard times are a factor. They’ve endured through boom and bust, depression and expansion, changes in White House occupants, uncountable new regulations that complicate the task, technological evolution and changing consumer tastes. They’re still here. They are, indeed, worth recognizing as they celebrate these milestone anniversaries in 2025.”
In January 2025, we were recognized as one of the “Milestones” Companies next to iconic Kansas City headquartered companies like Commerce Bank (160 years), Kansas City Art Institute (140 years), Westlake Ace Hardware (120 years), Hallmark (115 years), Helzberg Diamonds (110 years), and Carter Broadcast Group (the oldest black-owned and family-operated radio broadcast company in the United States, also founded 75 years ago like us!)
Here’s what Ingrams wrote about us, “How strong is the family dynamic at this Waldo-based company? Strong enough to have called Norman Besheer away from a 16-year law practice back in 1971 to work with his father-in-law, who had founded the enterprise. Almost up to his passing last month at the age of 96, Norman was still driving to the office, long after the leadership had been handed down to his son, Jay, and then to fourth-generation Noah, the current president. The company helps residential and commercial property owners defend against pests that arrive uninvited by land or by air, including rodents, spiders, ants, bed bugs, termites and mosquitoes.”
Honoring our 75-year history
1st Generation Family Members
The roots of Gunter Pest actually began forming in the 1940s, when Roy Gunter began treating Kansas City homes using a pre-mixed chemical called DE-BUGG. So, he loosely called his pest control business DE-BUGG. As Roy’s health declined, he enlisted his cousin Reggie gunter to ride with him and help him on the jobs. And within a few years, right about 1950, Roy gave all of his clients to Reggie and retired.
Reggie saw this as an opportunity to own his own company and to work for himself. There were only around 50 clients, but it was a start. The average job in the early ’60s was around $17.50. The hardest part about being in the exterminating business was the business iteself – advertising, accounting, budgeting and client records. This is where Reggie’s education at Baker University and his experience owning Gunter Candy company was put to good use.
Fun side note: Prior to taking over the pest control company, Reggie’s candy store was located where The Levee Bar is in midtown! He created and named a candy bar called the Patty Bar after his daughter Patricia (owner Jay Besheer’s mom and 4th generation president Noah Besheer’s grandma.) Rumor has it that his peppermint candy recipe was bought by a big candy company and re-named from the Patty Bar to the Peppermint Patty.
Reggie and his wife Betty ran the pest control company out of their Armour Hills home (in the Brookside/Waldo area,) converting their 3rd bedroom to an office and answering customer calls from there. A few years later, they’d move to an office in Waldo after outgrowing their home “office.”
2nd generation family member
In 1971, Reggie Gunter’s pest control company The Bugman rebrands to Gunter Exterminating Company (now called Gunter Pest and Lawn) when Reggie’s son-in-law (husband of his only daughter Patricia) Norman Besheer took over the business. Norman worked as a corporate lawyer for over a decade before changing careers to own a pest control company. His corporate lawyer experienced not only helped progress our history but also the industry.
Norman helped the National Pest Control Association to write their bylaws and form recommendations and platforms to present to our legislators, both at a state and federal level. When federal laws tried to take precedence over our local and state laws, he wrote the provisions to keep that from happening. In 1989, he was awarded as one of top 5 most influential people in the entire pest control industry. He was also served as President of the Missouri, Kansas and Kansas City pest Control Associations. No one else has ever done the same. He was awarded Mayor of Waldo and actively served on the boards of over a dozen community organizations. Norman continued in a part time role, coming into the office weekly, up until a few months before he passed at the age of 96.
3rd generation family member
In 1977, Jay Gunter Besheer graduates from University of Missouri with a degree in Business and studies in Entomology. He knew at a young age that he wanted to one day join his grandpa Reggie – one of his closest family members and a best friend – at his pest control business one day. So after taking classes to learn business and the study of bugs, he joined his father (the new president) after graduation. In 2000, Jay officially took over the company as president and owner, moving his father Norman to a new role as CEO. Jay and Norman worked really well alongside each other as father and son leaders for over four decades. Norman – the organized conservative who always ensured documents were filed and that the business was in good standing. And Jay – the risk taker who always ensured a healthy profit while taking the company to new levels of growth. Jay acquired multiple smaller pest control companies, made smart real estate moves including acquiring our headquarters location in Waldo over 30 years ago. With Jay’s rigor, he brought the company to the multi-million dollar business.
Jay remains the majority owner (with his two children the minority owners) today in 2025 – almost 50 years after joining the company.
4th generation family members Celebrating 75 Years As A Family-Owned KC Business
In 2015, Hayley Besheer Santell (Jay’s daughter and Reggie’s great-granddaughter) had graduated from University of Missouri with dual degrees in Journalism and Fine Arts. She relocated from a few years post-college in Florida back to her roots in Kansas City, and joined Gunter Pest in a part-time leadership role as Director of Business Development. Hayley’s marketing and design background have helped the company re-gain awareness in the city as the local pest control industry began to crowd with national competitors.
In 2020, Noah joined the team once again after years working summers as a technician in high school and college. In 2022, he officially transitioned into a new role as our 4th generation president! Noah’s Journalism degree from Mizzou and previous roles in marketing and social media at Famous Footwear’s parent company Brown Shoe Co plus the Four Seasons hotel and casino in St. Louis has already brought big growth to Gunter.
