MIHALY CSZIKSENTMIHALYI

MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI Mihaly was part of the "second wave" of UCMC climbers. He progressed quickly from tyro to graceful ascent of our unofficial "Rite of Passage", namely Brinton's Crack, and many other very challenging DL climbs.
Mihaly and I did several climbs together in the Tetons. I recall in particular: complete direct N. Ridge of Moran (first ascent); N. face of Peak 11795 (first ascent of our route).

Mihaly was born in Hungary, fled the Nazis during WWII, speaks four languages fluently, received his graduate degrees in Psychology from the Univ. of Chicago, where he was a Professor from 1971 to 1999. During this period he developed original theories about "flow", "creativity" and "the evolving self". Flow theory, in particular, has become widely accepted and now influences educational and management theory.

Translating roughly from the Hungarian, Mihaly's name means: "Michael Saint Michael from the province of Csik." and is pronounced ME-hai CHICK-sent-me-hai-ee

Excerpts from some email from Mihaly a while ago:

I am still teaching/writing, now in California (after teaching for 30 years at the good'old U. of C.), but hardly climbing any more. We did get a small ranch in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, but that's mostly for hiking. ...
I have been married to Isabella since '61, we had two boys both professors -- the older teaches Chinese philosophy at U.Wisc. Madison, the younger robotic art at MIT. Three pretty terrific grandkids,
Perhaps one of these Summers we could have a reunion in Montana, some sort of UC Geezer Climbfest -- there are some good pitches in the canyons of the Bitterroot close to our place.

A biographical summary by MentorCoach is here: