David Oliver Relin's family said that Relin was hurt, emotionally and financially, by the controversy over fabrications in 'Three Cups of Tea,' the book he co-authored with Greg Mortenson. 
 
 This is Lizard Squad, the nebulous hacker group now tied to the Sony hack 
 
 David Oliver Relin recently finished a book – scheduled for publication this spring – about two doctors who are working to cure cataract-related blindness in the developing world. 
 
 More sad news to report on “Three Cups of Tea": David Oliver Relin, the journalist and author who became famous as the co-author, with Greg Mortenson, of “Three Cups of Tea,” died Nov. 15 near Portland, Oregon of an apparent suicide. He was 49. 
 
 Relin’s family said the author suffered from depression and was hurt, emotionally and financially, when controversy arose over fabrications in “Three Cups of Tea,” which recounted how former mountain climber Mortenson started building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan through his charity. 
 
 The book’s accuracy was called into question last year when a "60 Minutes program" reported on its numerous fabrications as well as financial discrepancies in Mortenson’s charity, both of which were detailed by author Jon Krakauer in his book, “Three Cups of Deceit.” 
 
 Mortenson denied wrongdoing, though he acknowledged that some of the events in the book were compressed for storytelling purposes. Relin did not respond publicly to criticism, though he did hire a lawyer to defend himself in a federal lawsuit that accused the authors and publisher of defrauding readers. The suit was dismissed earlier this year. 
 
 Ironically, the very assignment that shot Relin to fame – “Three Cups of Tea” would go on to sell 4 million copies and draw widespread support for Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute – also brought him much grief and may have led to his eventual downfall. 
 
 From the start, Relin spoke publicly about how Mortenson, who was often unreachable traveling in remote areas, should not have been named a co-author. Elizabeth Kaplan, the agent for the book, told the New York Times that the relationship between the co-authors was difficult from the start. 
 
 The legal, emotional, and financial difficulties that followed allegations of fabrications further damaged Relin, who already suffered from depression. 
 
 Relin had established himself in the 1990s as a journalist specializing in humanitarian stories about people in need. It appeared he had tried to move on from the “Three Cups” controversy; Relin had completed a new book on two doctors who are working to cure cataract-related blindness in the developing world, scheduled for publication by Random House in spring 2013. 
 
 He is survived by his wife, Dawn; his stepfather Cary Ratcliff; and his sisters Rachel Relin and Jennifer Cherelin. 
 
 Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent. ||||| David Oliver Relin, a journalist and adventurer who achieved acclaim as co-author of the best seller “Three Cups of Tea” (2006) and then suffered emotionally and financially as basic facts in the book were called into question, died Nov. 15 in Multnomah County, Ore. He was 49. 
 
 His family said Mr. Relin “suffered from depression” and took his own life. The family, speaking through Mr. Relin’s agent, Jin Auh, was unwilling to give further details, but said a police statement would be released this week. 
 
 In the 1990s, Mr. Relin established himself as a journalist with an interest in telling “humanitarian” stories about people in need in articles about child soldiers and about his travels in Vietnam. 
 
 “He felt his causes passionately,” said Lee Kravitz, the former editor of Parade who hired Mr. Relin at various magazines over the years. “He especially cared about young people. I always assigned him to stories that would inspire people to take action to improve their lives.” 
 
 So it made sense when Viking books tapped him to write a book about Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who had an inspiring story about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 
 
 Elizabeth Kaplan, the agent for the book, acknowledged that the relationship between the two men was difficult from the start. Mr. Mortenson, who was traveling to remote areas, could be hard to track down, and Mr. Relin spoke publicly about how Mr. Mortenson should not have been named a co-author. Still, the book was a huge success, selling more than four million copies. 
 
 Some readers, however, found details of the heartwarming tale suspicious. In 2011, the CBS News program “60 Minutes” and the best-selling author Jon Krakauer in an e-book called “Three Cups of Deceit” questioned major points in the book. This included a crucial opening anecdote about Mr. Mortenson’s being rescued by the townspeople of Korphe, Pakistan, after stumbling down a mountain when he was dehydrated and exhausted. It was their care and concern, the book said, that inspired Mr. Mortenson to build schools. 
 
 The reports also said some of the schools that Mr. Mortenson’s charity, the Central Asia Institute, said it had established either did not exist or were built by others. There were also charges that the institute had been mismanaging funds and that a substantial portion of the money it raised had been used to promote the book, not for schools. 
 
 Mr. Mortenson acknowledged that some of the details in the book were wrong. Mr. Relin did not speak publicly about the charges, but he hired a lawyer to defend himself in a federal lawsuit that accused the authors and the publisher of defrauding readers. The suit was dismissed this year. 
 
 In April, the Montana Attorney General’s office announced that Mr. Mortenson had agreed to repay the charity more than $1 million in travel and other expenses used to promote the book, including “inappropriate personal charges.” 
 
 David Oliver Relin was born on Dec. 12, 1962, in Rochester to Lloyd and Marjorie Relin. His father died when he was young. Mr. Relin graduated from Vassar College in 1985, and was later awarded a fellowship at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 
 
 In addition to his mother, he is survived by his wife, Dawn; his stepfather, Cary Ratcliff; and his sisters Rachel Relin and Jennifer Cherelin. 
 
 Mr. Relin had completed a new book on two doctors working to cure cataract-related blindness in the developing world. It is scheduled for publication by Random House in spring 2013. ||||| Greg Mortenson (born December 27, 1957) is an American professional speaker, writer, veteran, and former mountaineer. He is a co-founder and former executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute and the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace.[2][3] 
 
 Mortenson is the co-author of The New York Times Bestseller, Three Cups of Tea, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 220 weeks.[4] Three Cups of Tea has been published in 47 languages.[5][6] Mortenson is also the author of Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[7] 
 
 Mortenson was accused of financial irregularities in handling donations to the CAI and falsehoods in his books. In 2012, Mortenson repaid $1 million to the CAI after an inquiry by the Montana Attorney General, though no criminality was found. 
 
 Early life [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson was born in 1957 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. His parents, Irvin and Jerene, went with the Lutheran Church to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1958 to be teachers in at a girls' school in the Usambara mountains. In 1961, Dempsey became a fundraiser and development director for the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center,[8] the first teaching hospital in Tanzania. Jerene was the founding principal of International School Moshi.[9] Spending his early childhood and adolescence in Tanzania, Mortenson learned to speak fluent Swahili.[9][10][11][12] 
 
 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 in Roseville, Minnesota, from 1973–75, where he graduated.[13] 
 
 After high school, Mortenson served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1975–77 and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.[14] Following his discharge, he attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 1977-79 on an athletic (football) scholarship.[15] 
 
 In 1978, Concordia College's football team won the NAIA Division III national championship with a 7-0 win over Findlay, Ohio.[16][17] Mortenson graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies and an associate degree in nursing.[9][10][13] 
 
 Humanitarian work and career [ edit ] 
 
 Origins in K2 [ edit ] 
 
 K2 
 
 Mortenson describes the origins of his humanitarian work in his best-selling (but later discredited) book, Three Cups of Tea. He states he traveled to northern Pakistan in 1993 to climb the world's second-highest mountain, K2, as a memorial to his sister, Christa. After more than 70 days on the mountain located in the Karakoram range, Mortenson failed to reach the summit. Earlier, Mortenson and fellow climber, Scott Darsney, were also involved in a 75-hour life-saving rescue of another climber, Etienne Fine, which put them in a weakened state.[18] After the rescue, he descended the mountain and set out with a local Balti porter, Mouzafer Ali, to the nearest city.[citation needed] 
 
 According to the account in Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson stated 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.[19][20] 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. 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.[21][22] 
 
 Literacy in Central Asia [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson has written and spoken widely about the importance of education and literacy for girls worldwide. He has further stated that girls' education is the most important investment all countries can make to create stability, bring socio-economic reform, decrease infant mortality and population explosion, as well as improving health, hygiene, and sanitation standards.[23] His view is that "fighting terrorism" perpetuates a cycle of violence where there should instead be a global priority to "promote peace" through education and literacy, with an emphasis on educating girls.[citation needed] 
 
 Three Cups of Tea describes his travels in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province including his escape from a 2003 firefight between Afghan opium warlords, how he was subject to two fatwās by conservative Islamist clerics for educating girls, and receiving hate mail and threats from fellow Americans for helping educate Muslim children.[24][25] 
 
 According to op-ed columnist and friend of Mortenson's, Nicholas D. Kristof,[26] the schools built by CAI have local support and have been able to avoid retribution by the Taliban and other groups opposed to girls' education because of community "buy-in", which involves getting villages to donate land, subsidized or free labor ("sweat equity"), wood and resources.[citation needed] 
 
 As of 2014, CAI reports it has established or significantly supported over 300 projects, including 191 schools,[27] in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.[28] 
 
 Central Asia Institute [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson with children in Pakistan in 2006 
 
 After experiencing frustration in his efforts to raise money for the school, Mortenson convinced Silicon Valley computer pioneer Jean Hoerni to fund the building of the Korphe school.[29] 
 
 Hoerni, who was critically ill at the time, formed the Central Asia Institute so that he and others could make tax-exempt donations to support Mortenson's work,[30] and Mortenson became its first executive director. The mission of the non-profit organization is to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.[31][32] 
 
 From 2006 through 2011, Greg Mortenson promoted his book as well as fundraising and promoting girls' education through public speaking events at schools throughout the United States. Travel expenses for his speaking engagements were paid for by Central Asia Institute through the end of 2010.[33] Mortenson personally kept the money received in exchange for his service as a public speaker as well as royalties from the sale of his book.[33] In 2009, the total cost of his book promotion, fundraising, and awareness-building for girls education paid for by CAI amounted to $4.6 million.[34] 
 
 In April 2012, after a year long investigation by the Montana attorney general, Mortenson agreed to repay $1 million to the CAI.[35] The Montana inquiry had found that he had misspent over $6 million of the organization's money, although no criminality was found. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock said: "Mr Mortenson may not have intentionally deceived the board or his employees, but his disregard for and attitude about basic record-keeping and accounting for his activities essentially had the same effect."[36] 
 
 Bullock also wrote in the report that "CAI's mission is worthwhile and important," and "Its accomplishments, driven by the vision and dedication of Mortenson, are significant – as even their harshest critics acknowledge."[37] 
 
 Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Mortenson was required to resign as executive director and could no longer serve as a voting member of CAI's board.[38] However, he was allowed to remain with CAI as an employee.[39] 
 
 Books [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson and David Oliver Relin are co-authors of the New York Times bestselling book Three Cups of Tea.[40] Listen to the Wind, a 32-page book Young Reader's version of Three Cups of Tea for ages 4–8, was written by Greg Mortenson and illustrated by Susan Roth.[41] It was a New York Times bestseller for 97 weeks.[42] As detailed in a New York Times article, Relin "suffered emotionally and financially as basic facts in the book were called into question" and ultimately committed suicide on November 15, 2012.[43] In 2009, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan was written by Greg Mortenson as a sequel to Three Cups of Tea.[44] 
 
 Controversies [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson has been criticized by writers such as Peter Hessler and Jon Krakauer for financial mismanagement of his charity,[45] for "dodging accountability" and for writing a book Krakauer described as "riddled with lies".[46] 
 
 In April 2011, 60 Minutes and author Jon Krakauer accused Mortenson of fabrication in his non-fiction books and of financial improprieties at his charity, Central Asia Institute.[47] After a one-year investigation, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock did not file criminal charges. Bullock sought restitution for book royalties, speaking and travel fees, promotional costs, and inappropriate personal bills Mortenson charged to the CAI. Mortenson was ordered to reinstate $1 million to the charity, which included credits for repayments already made.[48] In October 2013, Mortenson completed the repayments to CAI, fulfilling the terms of the 2012 settlement with Bullock.[49] 
 
 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer [ edit ] 
 
 On the April 17, 2011 broadcast of CBS News' 60 Minutes, correspondent Steve Kroft alleged inaccuracies in Mortenson's books Three Cups of Tea and its sequel, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as financial improprieties in the operation of the Central Asia Institute.[47] 
 
 60 Minutes made the following allegations:[50] 
 
 The story recounted in Three Cups of Tea about Mortenson getting lost and separated on the way down from K2 did not occur. [50] 
 
 about Mortenson getting lost and separated on the way down from K2 did not occur. The story recounted in Stones into Schools about Mortenson's capture by the Taliban did not occur. In fact, he was shown great respect and hospitality, consistent with the Pashtunwali values of his hosts. [51] 
 
 about Mortenson's capture by the Taliban did not occur. In fact, he was shown great respect and hospitality, consistent with the Pashtunwali values of his hosts. Among the schools that Central Asia Institute claimed to have established, some were never built, some were abandoned, some were being used for other purposes, and others were not supported by CAI after they were built. [50] 
 
 The amount of money Central Asia Institute was spending to cover Mortenson's promotional and travel expenses was excessive.[50] 
 
 60 Minutes asked Mortenson for an interview prior to their broadcast. Mortenson did not respond to their requests; however, he answered their questions in writing.[50][52] Mortenson refused to talk to Steve Kroft and, reportedly, the CAI staff requested that the hotel hosting the 60 Minutes crew ask them to leave the facility. Mortenson also canceled the speaking engagement that was scheduled that afternoon in the Atlanta convention facility.[53] 
 
 In an April 2011 Outside magazine interview, Greg Mortenson insisted that Krakauer contacted him only once and inaccurately claimed that he had been trying to get a hold of him for some time. He claimed although he arranged to meet with Krakauer, the interview was eventually cancelled "once I realized how deep and dirty this whole thing was".[22] 
 
 Mortenson wrote a statement in response to the allegations against him that were published in the Bozeman Chronicle: "I stand by the information conveyed in my book, and by the value of CAI's work in empowering local communities to build and operate schools that have educated more than 60,000 students", and added, "The time about our final days on K2 and ongoing journey to Korphe village and Skardu is a compressed version of events that took place in the fall of 1993..."[54] 
 
 Jon Krakauer, a former financial supporter of CAI, questioned Mortenson's accounts of his exploits independently and was interviewed for the 60 Minutes segment mentioned above. The day after the broadcast, Krakauer released his own allegations in a lengthy online article, Three Cups of Deceit - How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way.[30][55] Krakauer explored financial improprieties at CAI in great detail, reporting that a former board treasurer had left the organization because "Greg regards CAI as his personal ATM," routinely charged personal expenses to the organization, and rarely provided any receipts or documentation.[30] 
 
 In response to Krakauer's allegations, CAI produced a comprehensive 'Master Project List' on work CAI had completed, or currently was then working on. The list was released in December 2011.[52] 
 
 In January 2014, Mortenson was interviewed on Today by Tom Brokaw.[56] He apologized and acknowledged that he had let a lot of people down, and said "I failed in many ways, and it's an important lesson."[57] 
 
 In August 2014 Krakauer wrote a follow-up article for The Daily Beast in which he stated that an audit of CAI's overseas projects indicated that the charity was still "beset by widespread corruption" and that Mortenson remaining as the public face of the charity was not "in the best interest of the charity or the people it serves".[46] He concluded that "anyone thinking about donating to CAI should probably reconsider".[46] 
 
 Lawsuits [ edit ] 
 
 In May 2011, Jean Price and Michele Reinhart, and Dan Donovan, a Great Falls attorney, filed a class action lawsuit against Mortenson on behalf of readers, asking federal judge James Malloy in Missoula to place all proceeds from the purchases of Mortenson's books into a trust to be used for humanitarian purposes.[58][59][60] Several named plaintiffs dropped the lawsuit after confessing they had never read the books.[61][62][63][64] The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in federal court in May 2012. U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon chided the plaintiffs for presenting arguments that he called imprecise, flimsy, and speculative.[65] An appeals suit was dropped by the 9th District Federal Circuit Court on October 10, 2013.[66] 
 
 On October 6, 2013, after a lengthy lawsuit filed by Central Asia Institute, Philadelphia Insurance company was ordered by Magistrate Judge Jeremy Lynch to repay Central Asia Institute $1.2 million to pay for legal costs involved in the lawsuits and investigations.[67] 
 
 In May 2015, the Montana Attorney General stated that Central Asia Institute and Mortenson had completed the terms of a three-year compliance monitoring period, and CAI stated that the IRS had completed its examination of the nonprofit. The organization reported that it was having a return in donors and rise in contributions.[68][69] 
 
 3000 Cups of Tea [ edit ] 
 
 Journalists Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Rhoads began investigating the claims against Mortenson and made a 2016 documentary 3000 Cups of Tea. In the film and interviews Jordan claims that the accusations against Mortenson put forward by 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer are largely not true. Jordan said in 2014: "We are still investigating this story. So far, our findings are indicating that the majority of the allegations are grossly misrepresented to make him appear in the worst possible light, or are outright false. Yes, Greg is a bad manager and accountant, and he is the first to admit that, but he is also a tireless humanitarian with a crucially important mission."[70][71] 
 
 Recognition [ edit ] 
 
 Awards [ edit ] 
 
 Honorary degrees [ edit ] 
 
 Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD 2006 
 
 Concordia College, Moorhead, MN 2007 
 
 Montana State University, MT 2008 [104] 
 
 Villanova University, PA 2008 [105] 
 
 University of San Francisco, CA 2008 [106] 
 
 University of Washington – Bothell, WA 2008 [107] 
 
 Lewis & Clark College, OR 2008 [108] 
 
 Colby College, ME 2009 [109] 
 
 Simmons College, MA 2009 [110] 
 
 Saint Louis University, MO 2009 [111] 
 
 Loyola University Chicago, IL 2009 [112] 
 
 University of Pennsylvania, PA 2010 [113] 
 
 Brookdale College, Lincroft, NJ 2010 [114] 
 
 University of Colorado, Colorado Springs 2010 [115] 
 
 Stevenson University (MD) 2010 [116] 
 
 Wittenberg University (OH) 2010 [117] 
 
 University of Alberta, Edmonton (Canada) 2011 [118] 
 
 Published works [ edit ] 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 Mortenson, Greg; (with illustrator) Roth, Susan; (January 22, 2009). Listen To The Wind (children's picturebook) . Dial. ISBN 978-0-8037-3058-8. 
 
 Mortenson, Greg; Relin, David Oliver, adapted by Sarah Thomson (January 22, 2009). Three Cups of Tea: The Young Reader's Edition . Dial. ISBN 978-0-8037-3392-3. 
 
 Mortenson, Greg; (December 1, 2009). Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02115-4. 
 
 Personal life [ edit ] 
 
 Mortenson lives in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and their two children, Amira and Khyber.[119][120][121] In 2011, Mortenson was diagnosed with hypoxia and had surgery for an aneurysm and an atrial septal defect, an event which exactly coincided with the airing of the 60 Minutes expose and the release of Krakauer's accompanying book.[122][123]
– Looks like David Oliver Relin's grief over Three Cups of Tea may have led to his suicide. Relin, who co-authored the book, was suffering from depression and experienced financial and emotional strain over allegations that the book contained lies, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Relin didn't deny the accusations publicly, but did hire a lawyer to defend against a lawsuit that claimed Relin and co-author Greg Mortenson had defrauded readers. A judge threw out the lawsuit last year. But Relin and Mortenson always had a strained relationship, and Relin never thought Mortenson deserved co-author credit, reports the New York Times. Last year, reports emerged that the authors had fabricated elements of the book, like an opening anecdote about Mortenson being rescued by villagers in Pakistan. Despite all this, NPR reports that Relin has a new book coming out next year: Second Suns, Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives, about doctors who perform cataract surgery in Third World countries.