Greg Mortenson |
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Greg Mortenson is co-author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission To Promote Peace: One School At A Time; Penguin, 2007 (ISBN 0143038257).
He also is founder of Montana-based nonprofit Central Asia Institute, and founder of Pennies For Peace dedicated to promote literacy and education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Greg Mortenson grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania from 1958 to 1973, where his father, Irvin, founded the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, a 600 bed teaching hospital and his mother Jerene, founded a school.
Mortenson first climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro at age eleven in 1969, which began his love for mountaineering.
Mortenson served as a medic in the U.S. Army in Germany (1975-1977), and later graduated from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S.D., in 1983.
In July 1992, Mortenson's younger sister, Christa, died from severe epilepsy. A year later, to honor his sister's death, Mortenson attempted to climb Pakistan' treacherous K2, the world's second highest mountain.
Following the K2 ascent, an exhausted and weak Mortenson stumbled into a local village, named Korphe, where he was nursed back to health by impoverished mountain villagers. There, he found out that the literacy rate was only 3% and one out of three children born dies before the age of one.
In appreciation for their hospitality, Mortenson vowed to return and help build a school. From that rash promise, grew one a humanitarian to promote education, especially for girls, in remote, often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. As of 2007, he has set up 58 schools which provide education to over 24,000 children.
He has received two fatwehs by Mullahs angered by his attempts to educate girls. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and escaped a 2003 firefight by feuding Afghan warlords, by hiding in a truck under putrid animal hides going to a leather-tanning factory. After 9/11, he received hate mail and death threats from his fellow Americans for helping Muslim children with education.
He speaks extensively, including on Capital Hill, think tanks, the Pentagon, Dept. of Defense, physicians associations, outdoor groups, universities, schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, business and civic groups, women's organizations all across America.
While not overseas half the year, Mortenson, 48, lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist and his two young children.
Jefferson Award for Public Service
Mom's Choice Award: Author of the Year
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