Ellery Schempp of the Pittsburgh Explorer’s Group Nanga Parbat Expedition which was to be the first American group to reach the peak of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. Schempp, who is retired, currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen D. Solomon, a professor at New York University, has written a book about Schempp and the Supreme Court case entitled "Ellery’s Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer". On November 26, 1956, Schempp staged a protest against the school requirement that each student read 10 Bible passages and the Lord's Prayer each day during homeroom. That day he
Günther Messner Günther Messner Günther Messner (18 May 1946 – 29 June 1970) was an Italian mountaineer from South Tyrol and the younger brother of Reinhold Messner. Günther climbed some of the most difficult routes in the Alps during the 1960s, and joined the Nanga Parbat-Expedition in 1970 just before the beginning of the expedition due to an opening within the team. Günther was a member of a 1970 expedition to Nanga Parbat led by . Herrligkoffer had already organized six expeditions to Nanga Parbat and was said to be obsessed with the mountain after his half-brother, climber Willy Merkl, along with