Jim Pemberton was raised a bit differently than many children.

From his earliest memories, he recalls that area babysitters didn’t make a dime off of his mother and father.

“Things were different for us,” he said. “As a child, I worked behind the scenes in my father’s (Lee Pemberton) dry cleaning plant. Other than with grandparents, there was no leaving me or my sisters with a babysitter.”  

In fact, much of Jim’s practical cleaning experience occurred before he was old enough to have a driver’s license. He learned young and he learned fast, a credit he gives to his father.

Some might wonder if Jim’s father and mother were harsh in his upbringing.  “No,” says Jim. “It was nothing like that. We had a close bond and enjoyed the experience and I became a better person because of it. No babysitter could ever compare.”

Like many in our industry, Jim’s early start helped to mold him into the man he is today.

A recent visit to Pembertons Interlink Supplies in McKeesport, PA, revealed a 48-year-old dedicated professional who cares about everyone in our industry — he provides any type of help, from technical to management and more, to anyone who needs it, regardless of whether they are clients.

The staff of professionals working for Jim and Lee backs up this observation. At this time, Pembertons employs 10 dedicated people that seem to really enjoy their work. One of them, Jim Bane (no relationship with the folks at Bane Clene in Indianapolis) has been with Lee and Jim for nearly 30 years.

“I’d like to take this time to publicly thank Jim Bane, our service manager, equipment salesman, rental manager and the man I can rely on to ‘replace me’ when needed, for his 30 years of service to our company,” Jim said.

One interesting fact is that the building that houses Pembertons is an old schoolhouse that Jim attended as a youngster. He’s still in school.

Industry influences
Obviously, most in this industry know or know of Lee Pemberton, and Jim gives his father much credit for his own professional advancement.

“It’s difficult for any son to adequately convey his appreciation for his father. When your father is an industry legend, it’s that much more challenging,” Jim said.

Like most good parents, Lee taught by example. Jim would watch how his father conducted himself both in business and in his work with the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC).

Jim credits others who that have had positive influence on him, including Jim Roden, Jeff Bishop, Ralph Bloss, Claude Blackburn, Ed York, and Cliff Zlotnik.

“The fact that I got to know them ‘before they were giants’ and watched how they grew into their roles, and how they changed our industry, was a privilege,” Jim said.

As he reflects on them and their accomplishments, he is reminded of a quote from George Bernard Shaw that his friend Tony Wheelwright shared with him some time back:

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unrea-sonable people.”

“Those leaders,” Jim said, “were unreasonable people.”

Without them, Jim believes many positive changes and progress in the industry would have been stifled.

A career path
Not many youngsters today would say that their career goals include working in the carpet cleaning and/or disaster restoration industries.

When in his mid-teens, Jim helped Lee in classroom training. Lee taught upholstery and drapery cleaning, and Jim found that he enjoyed the “helper” role during hands-on training.

He spent time working on the family on-location carpet cleaning business, West Penn Cleaning, in his teenage years — he pushed the wand and did virtually anything involved in cleaning both in-plant and on location, except drive the work van since he was too young to have a driver’s license.

He distinctly recalls his father’s first hot water extractor and, of course, his first truckmounted unit, and the major changes both innovations brought to their cleaning business.

During his high school years, there was a time when he thought of making a career of zoology. Jim remains committed to conservation and the protection of wildlife.

So what made him change his mind? All it took was for his father to hand him a set of keys to the “demonstrator” sales van.

The story goes that one of Pemberton’s salesmen had an appointment to demonstrate some equipment and provide some training in New England. The salesman couldn’t go, so Lee handed Jim keys to the truck and sent him on his way. Jim was about two weeks out of high school.

“That was a defining moment for me,” Jim recalls. “It was a very fulfilling task, to help someone learn how to do things better. I’d say it was that assignment that helped me to decide to make this industry part of my life.”

Coping with criticism
Jim has many outlets for getting his thoughts out to those in the cleaning industry — one of them as a regular contributor to Cleanfax magazine.

Some of the topics he believes in can draw criticism, such as his belief that the Carpet and Rug Institute Seal of Approval program needs more work to really benefit the industry.

How does he deal with critics?

One event he recalls occurred several years ago when he received a Bane Clene newsletter, and in that newsletter Bill Bane had criticized something Lee had written. Jim stormed into Lee’s office, brandishing the sacrilegious piece.

“Lee told me that Bill had as much right to criticize as anyone, and that I was to read everything Bill Bane wrote,” Jim recalled. “He was, and still is, one of the people my father most respects in our industry, regardless of some of their past professional differences.”

Lee never calls competitors “competitors”, Jim said. He calls them colleagues and that’s how Jim views others in the industry who do similar work.

Doing stuff
Besides helping run the family supply business, Jim is an industry trainer and an IICRC-approved instructor, teaching mainly carpet and upholstery seminars, but sometimes specializing in other topics, should the need arise.

Jim believes that the most rewarding aspect of his varied career is teaching technicians how to clean upholstery, especially “problem” fabrics. He’s now working on a new one-day specialty class for fine fabric care that will be presented both in the classroom and on the Internet.

Jim muses about what would happen if distributors decided not to engage in training. He and his father both feel that distributors have a huge responsibility to the industry and often play the role of consultant, in addition to selling equipment and chemicals.

Besides his involvement in the supply industry and as a trainer, Jim recalls other tasks that have been deeply rewarding. In 1987, Mark Violand and John Downey invited him to assist in the growth and development of the United Carpet Cleaners Institute.

“That association, in its heyday, was arguably the best of its type,” Jim said. “The concept of local chapters of cleaners who met regularly and sponsored training programs was the shining achievement of the volunteers who made that association great.”

The association later merged with the ISCT and ACT to create the Society of Cleaning and Restoration Technicians (SCRT).

He believes the best of that association still exists in the SCRT chapters, and that the same benefits are found in a new concept of online cleaners’ community called Mikeysboard.

“Mikeysboard is not a traditional bulletin board that we see today,” Jim said. “It’s more than that. It’s totally supported by its members and not by advertisers.”

The online community, launched by Mike Pailliotet of Santa Cruz, CA, has become an overnight success, hosting some big names in the industry on its “Hot Seat” interviews.

Jim is one of the community moderators, and finds the work to be extremely rewarding.

Jim and the SOA
Those that read the pages of Cleanfax know that Jim is outspoken when he sees a program he feels needs major changes.
“I have spoken out in print and in public against many aspects of the program,” Jim said. “My concerns evolved as I began to see how the testing was being used and what products were being SOA-certified.”

Jim notes that he’s not against the program in its entirety. In fact, he’s thrilled that testing is being done.

Early data that showed that professional equipment and chemicals removed more than 90 percent of soil, as compared to 15 percent or less with rental equipment and consumer products, excited him.

“At last, I thought, scientific testing could prove that the trained technician using the right ‘stuff’ was whom the consumer should use for their cleaning needs,” Jim said.

As time passed, however, Jim said he had trouble with a few issues.

One of the issues was that few manufacturers had their equipment tested. Cleaners were struggling with decisions on what to do with current “unapproved” equipment, and how to afford premature replacement.

“That issue was somewhat resolved with an allowance for acceptance of equipment with minimum performance standards,” Jim said. “This new allowance is far from perfect, but it did take the potentially punitive financial burden off of cleaners who owned ‘the wrong’ equipment.

The second issue is the use of the Certified Space Science banner by some manufacturers and mostly by franchise groups,” he said.

He doesn’t have a problem with marketing, but the way it is presented can create the impression in consumer and retailer minds that the franchises are better than the independent cleaners. “That situation remains unacceptable to me.”

Called out
“As I struggled with my feelings about this issue (SOA), I was asked to be the first industry personality (whatever that is) to be interviewed on the Mikeysboard ‘Hot Seat.’  And a hot seat it was!” Jim said.

Among the expected questions about upholstery cleaning, training, and related cleaning issues, he soon received some very tough questions and, frankly, some very harsh comments were made about the SOA and Jim as an instructor and a supplier of products that happened to be SOA-certified.

Being called a “racketeer,” for example, certainly got his attention.

“I had a choice, at that point: I could have written off such hard questions and such clear insults to my integrity as the ravings of ‘bulletin board crackpots,’” Jim recalled.

He chose, instead, to approach those individuals, to ask them why they felt like they did, and what prompted their anger.  What seemed to be discourtesy was instead “understandable anger and worry, and a passionate response to both feelings. These individuals helped me to understand what many cleaners feel, but won’t always share in a classroom, or in a showroom.”

Jim found that “such individuals were not in a minority in our industry, but represented a vast majority of cleaners who feel that the control of their business future had been taken from them by individuals who did not understand them, or our industry.”

He feels that these people need to believe that they have a “place at the table” and that their legitimate concerns will be listened to.   

“I continue to have concerns about how testing continues to be done for SOA certification. The article in July’s Cleanfax by Dr. Aziz Ullah covers my concerns eloquently,” Jim said.

Jim knows that “third-party testing” of cleaning equipment and chemicals has merit.

“No reasonable individual will believe that testing sponsored by the carpet mills will simply cease to occur because of objections from our industry. The carpet industry feels the need to have such testing done, and such testing will continue,” Jim said. “What needs to be addressed now is what testing protocols are used, how those test results are interpreted, and what are the motives of all parties involved. How fair and useful tests develop from here will depend on ‘unreasonable’ people who will not accept anything but fairness!”

Jim’s predictions
There are three main topics that Jim feels will affect the future of our industry.

The first is with regards to equipment.    

“The energy crunch/crisis will likely only ratchet up,” Jim said. “Between the ongoing crisis in the Mideast and the rapid growth of China and its consumption of fossil fuels, as well as growing concerns about greenhouse gases, there will quite likely be a trend toward smaller, fuel-efficient vans, which will need smaller, fuel-efficient — perhaps electric — truckmounts.

The second is in regards to chemicals. Jim feels that the issue won’t be CRI SOA, but rather “green” cleaning chemicals.

“The reason ‘green’ will be so strong is that the pressure to use such products comes, not just from above (government regulation) but also from below (consumer demand),” Jim said.

The third is with training.

“Now more than ever, the technology exists for computer-based training, or ‘CBT’,” Jim said.

“With the rapid development of technology for webinars, streaming video and more, many aspects of a cleaner’s task could be taught via the Internet,” Jim feels.

“This will not end the value of the classroom, and certainly won’t replace hands-on training when needed, but one only need look at the small percentage of today’s technicians who are trained at any level to understand that the technology for such training exists, and our industry simply needs to have the will and the vision to see it through.”

Parting thoughts
Innovation is very important to Jim Pemberton.

He explains that many of our industry’s recent innovations were invented and introduced to the cleaning industry by cleaners and restorers (rather than established manufacturers), such as:

• Rotary jet extractors
• Sub-surface extractors and tools
• Teflon glides and lips
• Thermal energy drying systems
• Dry tools for upholstery cleaning.

Jim is concerned about innovation being stifled by testing and certification programs like the SOA.

He wonders how many of our industry pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s could have introduced the products that we take for granted if it were as costly as it is today to introduce new technology.