Greg Mortenson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson
Born 1957
St. Cloud, Minnesota, United States
Residence Bozeman, Montana, USA
Nationality US
Alma mater University of South Dakota
Occupation Humanitarian, author, Director CAI (Central Asia Institute
Employer Central Asia Institute
Home town Moshi, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Title Executive Director
Spouse(s) Tara Bishop
Website
Greg Mortenson's blog
Follow Greg on Twitter

Greg Mortenson (born 1957) is a humanitarian, international peace-maker, and former mountaineer from Bozeman, Montana. Mortenson is the co-founder (with Dr. Jean Hoerni) and director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute, and founder of the educational charity Pennies For Peace. He is the protagonist and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission To Promote Peace... One School At A Time. The sequel, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan is due for release on Dec 1, 2009.

Contents

[edit] Early life

From 1958 to 1973, Mortenson grew up on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania.[1] His father, Irvin "Dempsey" Mortenson, was the missionary [2] and founder/development director of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Tanzania's first teaching hospital.[1] His mother, Dr. Jerene Mortenson, founded the International School Moshi.

Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1975 to 1977 as a medic, and received the Commendation Medal. He attended Concordia College, Moorhead, from 1977 to 1979,[2] and later graduated from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1983 with an Associate Degree in Nursing and a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry.[3]

[edit] Transition to humanitarianism

In July 1992, Mortenson's young sister, Christa Mortenson, died from a life-long struggle with severe epilepsy on the morning she had planned to visit the cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa, where the baseball movie Field of Dreams was filmed.

In 1993, to honor his deceased sister's memory, Mortenson went to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain, in the Karakoram range of northern Pakistan. After more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers completed a life-saving rescue of a fifth climber that took more than 75 hours. The time and energy devoted to this rescue prevented him from attempting to reach the summit. After the rescue, he began his descent of the mountain and became weak and exhausted. Mortenson set out with one local Balti porter to the nearest city, but he took a wrong turn along the way and ended up in Korphe, a small village, where Mortenson was cared for by the villagers while he recovered. [4]

To pay the remote community back for their compassion, Mortenson said he would build a school for the village. After a frustrating time trying to raise money, Mortenson convinced Jean Hoerni, a Silicon Valley pioneer, to found the Central Asia Institute. The mission of CAI—a non-profit organization—is to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hoerni named Mortenson as CAI's first Executive Director.

In the process of building schools, Mortenson has survived an eight-day armed 1996 kidnapping in the tribal areas of Waziristan, in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province; escaped a 2003 firefight between Afghan opium warlords; endured two fatwās by angry Islamic clerics for educating girls; and received hate mail and threats from fellow Americans for helping educate Muslim children.

Mortenson believes that education and literacy for girls globally is the most important investment all countries can make to create stability, bring socio-economic reform, decrease infant mortality, decrease the population explosion, and improve health, hygiene, and sanitation standards globally.[5] Mortenson believes that 'fighting terrorism' only perpetuates a cycle of violence, and that there should be a global priority to 'promote peace' through education and literacy, with an emphasis on girls' education. "You can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads or put in electricity, but unless the girls are educated, a society won't change", is an often quoted statement made by Mortenson. Because of community 'buy-in', which involves getting villages to donate free land, subsidized or free labor ('sweat equity'), free wood and resources, the schools have local support and have been able to avoid retribution by the Taliban or other groups opposed to girls' education. [6]

Mortenson and David Oliver Relin are co-authors of the New York Times best selling book Three Cups of Tea. [7] As of October 2009, Central Asia Institute, has established over 131 schools in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan, which provide education to 54,000 students including over 44,000 girls. [3] Pennies for Peace is a program Mortenson launched to involve American school-children in fund-raising efforts for the schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [8]

The Government of Pakistan announced on its Independence Day of August 14, 2008, that Mortenson will receive Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Sitara-e-Pakistan (The Star of Pakistan), in a Islamabad civil ceremony during Pakistan Day on March 23, 2009. According to Article 259(2) of Pakistan's Constitution, the President of Pakistan—acting on behalf of the State—confers civil awards in recognition of services rendered, gallantry or distinction.

In August 2008, Mortenson met with then-President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, and discussed the book Three Cups of Tea over tea,[9] and in March 2009, Mortenson met with new President Asif Zardari for a cup of tea, upon receiving the Sitara-e-Pakistan award.[10]

On Wednesday, July 15, 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff paid a visit to Pushgur school, in a remote valley of Afghanistan, to inaugurate one of Mortenson’s new schools, to highlight the military’s new strategy to advocate empowering local communities, build relationships and the significance of education to promote peace. Thomas Friedman, renowned New York Times columnist wrote about the visit in his column.[11]

Mortenson was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, by several bi-partisan members of U.S. Congress, and according to Norwegian odd-makers was believed to have been in a handful of finalists of the Peace prize that was awarded to President Obama on October 10th, 2009.

In November 2009, U.S. News & World Report magazine featured Greg Mortenson as one of America's Top Twenty Leaders in 2009. [12]

[edit] Family

Greg Mortenson's home is in Montana, where he lives with his wife and children. His paternal Norwegian ancestors migrated via ship from the Lofoten Islands and near Tromsø, north of the Arctic Circle, to Quebec, Canada. They later went on by ox-cart carriages and home-steaded in sod-dung shelters near Starbuck, Minnesota, USA in the late 1860s. Mortenson's great, great grandfather, Carl Ellertson, set up the first school house near Benson, Minnesota in 1868, a year after migrating to the region. Mortenson's father, Dempsey, died from cancer in 1981. His mother, Jerene, is a retired elementary school principal, and manages the ice cream soda fountain at Lake Lodge in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Mortenson has two surviving sisters, Sonja Rauen and Kari Theisen, and is married to Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, with whom he has two children. [13] Tara Bishop is the daughter of the famed Dr. Barry Chapman Bishop, (1932–1994), a geographer and glaciologist. Dr. Bishop was a National Geographic Society editor, photographer of the historic 1963 American Mount Everest expedition, and chairman of the NGS Research & Exploration Committee.

[edit] Awards

[edit] General

  • 1975 US Army Commendation medal
  • 1998 American Alpine Club David Brower Conservation Award
  • 2002 Peacemaker Award from Montana Community Mediation Center
  • 2003 Climbing Magazine "Golden Piton Award" for humanitarian effort
  • 2003 Vincent Lombardi Champion Award for humanitarian service
  • 2003 "Peacemaker of the Year" Benedictine Monks, Santa Fe , NM
  • 2003 Outdoor Person of the Year - Outdoor Magazine
  • 2003 Salzburg Seminar fellow, sponsored by Microsoft
  • 2004 Freedom Forum "Free Spirit Award" - National Press Club
  • 2004 Jeanette Rankin Peace Award - Institute for Peace
  • 2005 Men's Journal 'Anti-Terror' Award by Senator John McCain
  • 2005 Red Cross “Humanitarian of The Year” Montana
  • 2006 Golden Fleur-de-lis Award from Comune Firenze, Italy
  • 2007 Medical Education Hall of Fame Award, Toledo, Ohio
  • 2007 Rotary International - Paul Harris Award
  • 2007 Mountain Institute - Award for Excellence in Mountain Communities
  • 2007 Runner-Up (2nd place) for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize[[
  • 2008 Citizen Center for Diplomacy - National Award for Citizen Diplomacy
  • 2008 Courage of Conscience Award
  • 2008 Graven Award - Wartburg College, IA
  • 2008 National Award for Citizen Diplomacy - Citizen Center for Diplomacy
  • 2008 Mary Lockwood Founders Medal For Education - Daughters of The American Revolution
  • 2008 Sword of Loyola, St. Louis University, MO [4]
  • 2008 Charles Eliot Educator Award - New England Association of Schools & Colleges [5]
  • 2009 Academy of Achievement Award [6]
  • 2009 Sitara-e-Pakistan (The Star of Pakistan medal) [7]
  • 2009 Archon Award - Sigma Theta Tau International (Nursing Award)
  • 2009 Austin College Leadership Award, Sherman TX - life work to take courageous stand on education issues for peace [8]
  • 2009 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award
  • 2009 National Education Association (NEA) Human & Civil Rights Award [9]
  • 2009 City College San Franisco Amicus Collegii Award - Promoting peace through education
  • 2009 Jefferson Award For Community Service: Carnegie Endowment & Harvard Kennedy School of Government [10]
  • 2009 US News & World Report: America's Top 20 Best Leaders 2009 [11]
  • 2009 Italy: Premio Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti” [12]

[edit] Three Cups of Tea - Book Awards and Mentions

  • Kiriyama Prize - Nonfiction Award
  • Time Magazine - Asia Book of The Year
  • Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award
  • Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association - Nonfiction Award
  • Montana Honor Book Award
  • Banff Mountain Festival Book Award Finalist
  • Dayton Literary Prize Nonfiction Award – Runner up
  • Borders Bookstore - Original Voices Selection
  • People Magazine – Critics Choice
  • Publisher’s Weekly – Starred Review
  • Mom's Choice Award 2009 [13]
  • 2009 Italy: Premio Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti” [14]

[edit] Honorary doctorate degrees

  • Concordia College , Moorhead , MN 2007
  • University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 2007
  • Montana State University, MT 2008
  • Villanova University, PA 2008
  • University of San Francisco, CA 2008
  • University of Washington – Bothell, WA 2008
  • Lewis & Clark College, OR 2008 [14]
  • Seattle University, WA 2008
  • Colby College, ME 2009[15]
  • Simmons College, MA 2009
  • Saint Louis University, MO 2009
  • Loyola University Chicago, IL 2009
  • University of Pennsylvania, PA 2010
  • Fontbonne University, MO 2010

[edit] Bibliography

  • Akiner, Shirin; Tidemen, Sander (1998). Sustainable Development In Central Asia:. Curzon Press. ISBN 0-312-21931-8. 
  • Jones, Karen; Mortenson, Greg (2005). The Difference A Day Makes:. New World Library. ISBN 1-57731-475-1. 
  • Canfield, Jack; (2005). Chicken Soup For The Peace Loving Soul:. Deerfield Beach. ISBN 0-7573-0312-9. 
  • Mortenson, Greg; Relin, David Oliver (2006). Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time. Penguin Group. ISBN 0-670-03482-7. 
  • Hanson, Kenneth; (2007). Himalayan Portfolios:. Charles Fields. ISBN 0-312-21931-8. 

[edit] See Also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "American mountaineer fights Taliban with books, not bombs", John Blake, CNN International, March 3, 2008
  2. ^ Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. - Promoting Peace with Schools
  3. ^ Greg Mortenson Bio.
  4. ^ "Fresh Air", with Terry Gross, National Public Radio (NPR), February 7, 2002
  5. ^ "Another Way to stop Terrorism", Parade Magazine, March 5, 2006.
  6. ^ "It Takes a School, Not Missiles", NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times - Op-Ed Column, July 12, 2008.
  7. ^ "Paperback Nonfiction Bestsellers", The New York Times, March 16, 2008,
  8. ^ "Pocket change for social change", Lora Pabst, Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 5, 2008.
  9. ^ "Three Cups of Tea With Pakistan's Musharraf", National Public Radio, August 23, 2008
  10. ^ Bozeman Chronicle Coverage of the Award Ceremony, March 23, 2009
  11. ^ "Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No." by Thomas Fiiedman, July 19th, 2009
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ Greg Mortenson bio, www.gregmortenson.com
  14. ^ http://www.lclark.edu/org/commence/address08.html
  15. ^ http://www.colby.edu/news_events/press_release/mortenson.cfm

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson"
Languages