While living in Northern Kentucky as a young boy, Charles Edward Pemberton taught himself how to swim at the local YMCA. Subsequent to establishing himself as an emerging leader in swimming, he began educating other children when he was only 12 years old. He recognized that swimming was his passion, and thus, he pursued coursework at Eastern Kentucky University, receiving his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical education in 1965. After one year of teaching mathematics at Conner Middle School, he went on to serve Alice Lloyd College as a health teacher from 1967 to 1968. As his career progressed, Mr. Pemberton served the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as an aquatics director from 1970 to 1973, the University of Tennessee as director of the Hydro Help-Handicapped Swim Program from 1977 to 1978, and the Clinton City School District as an aquatics teacher from 1978 to 1985. In the latter stages of his career, he was a health teacher at Farragut Middle School from 1992 to 2005.
Developing a well-rounded sphere of expertise in both education and aquatics, Mr. Pemberton began serving Knoxville Pediatric Associates in 1981 as a consultant and teacher, roles he still holds today. Likewise, he founded Pemberton & Associates, Inc., in 1984, where he serves as president and chief executive officer. Most recently, he has excelled as the chief executive officer and primary instructor for AdventureSwim. com in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Throughout his illustrious career, Mr. Pemberton is notable for hosting the American Aquatics Association’s International Synchronized Swimming Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1972, and holds patents for a “swim mirror” in the United States and 32 European countries. He currently has a patent pending for a rain bucket. Alongside these feats, he has opened and operated a five-star scuba training center in Knoxville, has arranged and hosted scuba training sessions on a global scale, and has consulted in swimming instruction in Russia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China and Singapore.
Mr. Pemberton was named an Outstanding National Swim Instructor for his efforts in the field, as well as a National Outstanding Swim Teacher from 1990 to 1993. In light of his military services, in which he served to the rank of first lieutenant in the First Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in the mid-1960s, he earned a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal. He maintains affiliation with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, for whom he serves as a master instructor and course director. He is also a member of the National Swim School Association, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, and the Tennessee Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.