About Our Founder, Melon (M. Ellen) Dash

Founder M. Ellen (Melon) Dash, a competitive swimmer all her life, left her job as a chauffeur and administrative assistant for an orthopedic surgeon in 1982, knowing that there was something she was born to do. A book asked her, "Is there an activity you love which you wouldn't mind being paid $100 to do?" The answer was, 1) coaching swimming and, 2) teaching adults who are afraid in water to swim.

As a graduate student she'd taught Beginning Swimming to undergrads at Keene State College in New Hampshire (1978). One day as a Red Cross instructor at KSC, she stood on the deck teaching a Beginning swim class to 20 undergraduates. As she gave instructions to kick across the pool with the flutter kick, she was stared at by no less than 10 students who were asking a question they couldn't put into words: "Why are you telling me what to do with my arms and legs when I am afraid I might not live?"

She asked the college administration if she could offer a class for undergraduates who weren't ready to learn swimming mechanics because they were afraid. The administration, while cooperative, advised that it would take too much red tape to change the undergraduate curriculum. They suggested she teach a new class through the Adult Extension Program which the College would promote. She agreed.

People came. It worked. They were ecstatic.

In 1983, she realized that no one was expert at helping people who are afraid in water. She realized that this was her work. Transpersonal Swimming Institute opened two months later, May 1, 1983.

Since 1983, 3500 students have graduated from her program. She produced a videotape, wrote a book, has spoken at numerous events, appeared in dozens of newspapers, television and radio programs, and has set a goal of reducing preventable drowning to zero by teaching every human to be in control in deep water. Her next book is pending.