The Florida Pest Management Association (FPMA) Urban Entomology Professorship at the University of Florida traces back to a late-1990s, industry-driven effort to strengthen UF/IFAS capacity in urban and structural pest management through research, Extension, and teaching. In 1999, industry leaders Dempsey R. Sapp Sr. and Margie B. Sapp made a transformational gift to establish UF/IFAS's first endowed distinguished professorship focused on structural pest control and urban entomology.

The endowment was later supplemented through state matching support, and UF appointed entomologist Dr. Philip G. Koehler to the endowed role that same year. Building on that momentum and the broader push to expand university-based support for the profession, FPMA and its members organized additional industry support to endow a companion professorship dedicated to urban pest management.

Today, the FPMA endowment supports a professorship in UF/IFAS Entomology & Nematology for a faculty member with a distinguished record in research, Extension, and instruction on urban pest problems—work that benefits Florida residents and the pest management industry.