2. • Greg Mortenson is an American humanitarian,
professional speaker, writer, and former
mountaineer. He is the co-founder and executive
director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as
well as the founder of the educational
charity Pennies for Peace. Mortenson is the
author or co-author of the New York Times
Bestsellers Three Cups of Tea and Stones into
Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs,
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In April 2011, he was
accused of using literary license in his non-fiction
books and of financial improprieties at his
charity, Central Asia Institute.
3. • Greg Mortenson was born to Lutheran missionary parents in St.
Cloud, Minnesota. Through the leadership of the Lutheran Church,
Mortenson's father, Irvin ("Dempsey"), was a fundraiser for and
development director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre,
Tanzania's first teaching hospital. Mortenson's mother, Jerene, was
the founding principal of International School Moshi. Mortenson
spent his early childhood and adolescence in Tanzania, East Africa,
where he learned to speak Swahili fluently. In the early 1970s,
when he was 15 years old, Mortenson and his family left Tanzania
and moved back to Minnesota. He attended Ramsey High School
inRoseville, Minnesota, from 1973 to 1975. After high school,
Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1975 to 1977
as a medic and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.
Following his discharge, he attended Concordia College in
Moorhead, Minnesota, from 1977 to 1979 on an athletic (football)
scholarship. Mortenson graduated from the University of South
Dakota in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies and an
associate's degree in nursing.
4. • As described in his first book, Three Cups of Tea,
Mortenson states that he travelled to
northern Pakistan in 1993 in order to climb the
world's second highest mountain, K2, as a
memorial to honor his sister Christa's memory.
After more than 70 days on the mountain located
in the Karakoram range, Mortenson and three
other climbers completed a 75-hour life-saving
rescue of a fifth climber. The time and energy
devoted to this rescue prevented Mortenson
from attempting to reach the summit. After the
rescue, he began his descent off the mountain
and set out with local Balti porter Mouzafer Ali to
the nearest city.
5. • According to the account in Three Cups of Tea,
Mortenson states he took a wrong turn on the
trail and ended up in the small village
of Korphe. Physically exhausted, ill, and alone
at the time of his arrival there, Mortenson was
cared for by some of Korphe's residents while
he recovered. As a gesture of gratitude to the
community for their assistance to him,
Mortenson said he would build a school for
the village after he noticed local students
attending school in an outdoor location and
writing out their lessons in the dirt.
6. • Mortenson has since stated in a 2011
interview that the timing in the Korphe
account in Three Cups of Tea is inaccurate and
that the events actually took place over a
longer period of time and during separate
trips. Also in contrast to what is written
in Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson is purported
to have initially promised to build a school
in Khane village, but was convinced to build a
school in Korphe by the village leaders.
7. Credits
• Matthew Lee
• Leonard Yee
• Harold Ng
• Franz Famarin
