Randall S. Pemberton

Randall Stewart Pemberton was born November 23, 1917 to Lee R. and Margaret (Johnson) Pemberton at Marshall, Minnesota; the family was living at Minneota at the time. In 1922 the family moved to Blue Earth where Randall attended school and was graduated from Blue Earth High School with the Class of 1935. He continued his education and earned degrees and diplomas from Macalester College, St. Paul; The Gregg College, Chicago; and Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. He also attended ten other colleges and universities. He was a veteran of forty-four months military service in World War II with the U.S. Army Medical Department. Randall was a teacher at Mazeppa, Farmington, East Grand Forks, Mankato, Owatonna and Robbinsdale Area schools. Although he was certified in counseling and administration, he spent his life in the classroom teaching business subjects, stating that he wished to prepare students who did not have the resources for education beyond high school to be able to support themselves in the business community. Randall served many years as a Scout Master, traveling with Scouts to wilderness areas and in other Scouting and youth programs. Randall had a vast knowledge of science, literature and the arts, with which he entertained and inspired the young people with whom he worked during his life. Randall retired from regular teaching to return tohis parents'' home in Blue Earth, where he saw both of them out of this life. During those years, he was a substitute classroom teacher in a number of surrounding schools. He was a collector of chairs dating from the 1700''s to the present. He was a skilled restorer of antique chairs and other antique furniture as well as an artist at Scandinavian Rosemaling and Hitchcock stenciling. His work with chairs was displayed at the Minnesota State Fair. He was a genealogist of professional capability who produced detailed genealogies of his family and others for many generations. He possessed a reading and speaking knowledge of Norwegian and, to a lesser extent, Swedish. He traveled to Scandinavia and Scotland to visit relatives and friends. He was consulted frequently concerning Blue Earth city and Faribault County history. Randall was unmarried. He is survived by his brother Richard (Betty Joan) Pemberton of Fergus Falls and three nephews; Richard, Jr. (Rebecca), Jonathan (Lana), and Stuart (Anne), three grand nephews (Nicholas, Luke and Ezra) and one grand niece (Madeleine) Randall requested cremation and the family plans a memorial service to be scheduled near Memorial Day 2009, his ashes will be interred in the family plot at Riverside Cemetery, Blue Earth, Minnesota.