Shrouded Figure

In a sports store in Minnesota, the Director of the Central Asia Institute (CAI) is setting up chairs for a slide presentation in hopes of garnering donations from those in attendance. Greg has put on some weight and is sweating with his effort, but the organization’s funds are perilously low so these kinds of activities must be done. When he is not in Pakistan, Greg gives a presentation every week; it is something he hates, but even a bad night’s donations of a few hundred dollars could make the difference for the children of Pakistan, so he endures. When it is time to begin, he sees nothing but empty chairs. The posters on local college campuses and his morning radio interviews had apparently not been as successful as he had hoped. After an announcement over the store’s public address system, two young employees sit in the last row and Greg begins. He is soon past his K2 experience and concentrating on the refugee schools when he sees a middle-aged professor-type man sit and watch the screen. Greg gives his impassioned plea to an audience of three. At the end, one wants to volunteer (which CAI does not do because of the expense involved), one hands Greg a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and on the last chair in the last seat is an envelope with a personal check for twenty thousand dollars.

Greg’s story is being told in newspapers around the country, and the mountaineering community is beginning to support his cause in big ways. The message is that Greg is doing more for peace in the Middle East than any other government or agency is doing. When he is not in Pakistan or making presentations, Greg jealously guards his time with his family in Montana. Several key board members begin to distance themselves from the CAI because Greg is not taking care of himself—and he is the organization. He is not sleeping enough and is so out of shape he could easily be struck by a sudden and critical health disaster. Greg eventually hires an assistant, but any money spent in America would go further in Pakistan, and his fund now has less than a hundred thousand dollars. Twelve thousand dollars will build a school there; here it will not buy anything particularly meaningful. The Mortensons are eking by on Tara’s part-time salary and Greg’s original $28,000 salary, and Greg becomes obsessed with finding one rich donor, like Hoerni, who will underwrite the fund. A wealthy widow tempts him with a large donation, so he flies to Atlanta to meet with her. He meets her in a parking lot and gets into her car, which is packed with old newspapers and tin cans. In retrospect, he should have known she may have liked the idea of giving but would not, in the end, be able to part with her money—just as she cannot part with old newspapers and tin cans. Vera Kurtz ultimately makes advances on Greg; she is a lonely woman who simply wants someone to be with her. Greg escapes unscathed and vows to be more careful after this episode. But he takes the bait of a large donation once again from a rich Montana contractor. Greg attends an extravagant fundraising event that does not raise a dime for the CAI. Instead, the contractor simply wants to brag about his own accomplishments.

Tara is seven months pregnant with their second child in the spring of 2000 and calls a “summit meeting” with her husband at their kitchen table. Although she loves his passion for his work, she...