User:Swimmerinfo/Ed Pemberton

Ed Pemberton is a noted swim instructor and educator that has taught more than 30,000 people to swim and certified more than 5,000 SCUBA divers. Pemberton has invented several devices used in swimming schools and has several patents pending. He has written articles for “Skin Diver” magazine and assisted in the publication of two books. Pemberton has been consulted and assisted in establishing swimming programs in several foreign nations.

Early Life
Pemberton attended Holmes High School in Covington, Kentucky where he lettered in Swimming and Football. He won swimming medals at state final competition. Outside of school he was in the Leaders Club at the local YMCA where he excelled and taught gymnastics and swimming. He attended, and became a counselor) at the Blue Ridge YMCA Leaders School near Asheville, North Carolina. He was the Master Counselor in the Order of Crusades and the President of the Covington Chapter of The Order of DeMolay.

Pemberton graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Science degree with double majors in Mathematics and Health, Physical Education and Recreation. He was a member of the Swim Team and served as president of the Physical Education Majors Club, member of the Math Club and taught college classes in Swimming for the Physical Education Department.

Vietnam War Experiences
Upon graduation and completing the ROTC program, Pemberton was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army where he served two years. After training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he went to Fort Hood, Texas where he served in the First Armored Division as Basic Training cadre working with new recruits. He was assigned to the First Infantry Division in Vietnam where he served as a combat lieutenant in the 1/28 Infantry Battalion. During this assignment he was awarded The Combat Infantry Badge, The Bronze Star Medal, and an Army Commendation Medal for heroism.

Post War
Returning from Vietnam, Pemberton accepted a position teaching Health and Physical Education at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, KY where he coached the college soccer team and served as the assistant basketball coach. He was a member of the Speakers Bureau, a group who presented lectures to many functions throughout the area.

Pemberton attended the University of Kentucky where he earned a Master of Science Degree with emphasis in sports medicine and exercise physiology. At UK he founded and directed the Faculty Children Swim School at the university natatorium. In research, he assisted Ernst Jokl, M.D. in body composition studies, with underwater weighing, body composition, and exercise to develop cardiac results. He was inducted into the Phi Delta Kappa Honorary Education Society for Academic Excellence and the Phi Epsilon Kappa Fraternity. Pemberton began pursuing his Ph.D. in mechanical analysis of sport motion and exercise physiology at the University of Iowa. He assisted in exercise in relation to bone density research, exercise in relation to blood flow research, mechanical analysis of swimming research, and completed a complete human body dissection with medical students.

Pemberton accepted the position of Aquatics Director at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he conducted numerous aquatic programs and became certified as an American Red Cross Instructor Trainer. Pemberton, established special programs for the handicapped and hosted the 1971 AAU Indoor National Synchronized Swimming Championship competition, established a SCUBA Training Courses and became certified as a Master Scuba Instructor thru the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). Pemberton hosted many dive trips locally and internationally.

Business Career
Following college Pemberton accepted a position in the Chicago area as the Advertising Manager and Mid Atlantic District Sales Manager for The Dacor Corporation, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of Scuba equipment. Here he wrote and supervised the 52- page catalog, wrote a sales promotion manual for dealers and was instrumental in designing and obtaining a patent for a new diving product for Dacor.

Career as an Educator
Pemberton joined the faculty of The University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1978 as the Director of Hydro Help - Handicapped Swim Program, where he trained students how to teach disabled children and adults to swim. There were more than 200 participants in the program. Additionally, he taught all levels of classes as a Red Cross water safety Instructor Trainer and as a Red Cross adapted aquatics instructor trainer. At UT, he established the non-credit children's and adults swim programs.

In 1985, Pemberton began teaching in the Clinton City School System where he taught swimming to elementary school children.

Later that year, he opened Adventure Swim Scuba and Travel, a full time retail 5-star PADI instructor development center. Pemberton certified students of open water and advanced diving over the next 15 years. Pemberton became certified as a PADI director/ instructor teaching classes in Knoxville, Nashville, and in Bermuda.

During these years he served on the PADI Master Instructor Review Committee that modified SCUBA instruction practices. Pemberton served as the district course director for District #10 (State of Tennessee) and currently is the only person in the State of Tennessee certified to teach instructors for PADI.

In 1992, Pemberton accepted a position teaching health at the Farragut Middle School until 2005. During the interim, he started the Adventure Swim School teaching swimming extensively after school and in the summers. He continued teaching SCUBA and developed the “Fast and Fun Swim System.” This program has proven effective in teaching children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome how to swim.

1992-Present
Pemberton continues to operate AdventureSwim.com and is often consulted on the development of swim programs in foreign nations. He has provided consultation on programs in Toulouse, France; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janiero, Brazil; St Petersburg, Russia; Hong Kong, China; Bangkok, Thailand; Kula Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore; Bali, Indonesia; Chalybinsk, Russia; Monterrey, Mexico and more he sought answers to solve problems and to share his techniques with others.