MINNEAPOLIS, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — It is with profound sadness that we share news that our beloved dad passed away today in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As proud as we were of him leading the presidential ticket for Democrats in 1984, we know that our father’s public policy legacy is so much more than that. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was one of his proudest – and hardest fought – achievements. In the course of his years in the U.S. Senate, he understood the sense of reckoning that this country then faced, and was committed to that work alongside Hubert Humphrey, Josie Johnson, Roy Wilkins and so many others. We are grateful that he had the opportunity to see the emergence of another generation of civil rights reckoning in the past months.
It is also poignant that his other area of major policy focus was the environment, as the world’s grappling with climate change enters a new generation of critical work. Passage of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act was another hard-fought accomplishment in his long career.
He was honored to serve as Minnesota’s Attorney General, as United States Senator from Minnesota, as U.S. Ambassador to Japan; his greatest honor and privilege, of course, was serving as Vice President of the United States under President Jimmy Carter.
Beyond his commitment to public service, our dad was committed to our family, and we will miss him more than words can capture. He was preceded in death by our sister, Eleanor, and our mother. He is survived by sons Ted and William; grandchildren Louis, Amanda, Berit and Charlotte Mondale, and Cassandra and Danielle Miller; daughter-in-law Rebecca Mondale and son-in-law Chan Poling.
We also want to express our deep gratitude to all the people who worked on his staff in each public office and who maintained active connections with him in the years since. Finally, deep appreciation to Lynda Pedersen, his long-standing executive assistant at the Dorsey Law firm and to Patti Schwartz, his primary homecare provider since the passing of our mother, Joan, in 2014.
Plans for memorials will be announced later for both Minnesota and Washington D.C.
Obituary: Walter F. Mondale
Walter Frederick “Fritz” Mondale, former Vice President of the United States, passed away peacefully from natural causes on April 19, 2021 at age 93, at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, surrounded by his immediate family.
Fritz was born on January 5, 1928 in Ceylon, Minnesota to Theodore Sigvaard Mondale, a Methodist minister and Claribel Cowan Mondale, a part-time piano teacher. His father’s parents were Norwegian immigrants from “Mundal” from which the family surname came. His mother was the daughter of an immigrant from Ontario, of Scottish and English descent. He had an older half-brother, R. Lester Mondale (1904-2003) and two brothers closer in age to him: Clarence, known as Pete (1926-2014) and William, known as Mort, who survives him. He is also survived by his brother-in-law Judge William Canby of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The family lived in Heron Lake and Elmore, where Fritz graduated from high school and earned the nickname “Crazy Legs” for his football stardom. He attended Macalester College in St. Paul for two years, then the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He served in the United States Army stateside during the Korean War. After he returned, he attended the University of Minnesota Law School on the G.I. Bill, serving on the Minnesota Law Review and graduating in 1956. He married Joan Adams in 1955, whom he had met on a blind date, organized by Joan’s sister and Fritz’s friend Bill Canby. After law school, he served as a law clerk for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Thomas Gallagher.
He practiced law in Minneapolis and was active in DFL politics under his mentors Hubert Humphrey and Orville Freeman, for whom he had campaigned. In 1960, at age 32, he was appointed Attorney General of the State of Minnesota by Governor Freeman. As Attorney General, he led many of the nation’s attorneys general in advocating successfully in Gideon v. Wainwright to establish for the first time a criminal defendant’s right to legal counsel.
Four years later, when Senator Humphrey was elected Vice President of the United States, Governor Karl Rolvaag appointed Mondale to fill Humphrey’s U.S. Senate seat. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1966 and in 1972.
Senator Mondale represented Minnesota in the United States Senate for twelve years. His accomplishments were many for a young Senator, most notably the critical role he played in the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned discrimination in housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex and was the final great legislative achievement of the civil rights era. He also achieved an early victory for the environment in his leadership in the 1968 passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, leading to preservation of the St. Croix River for generations to come. He was a strong advocate for consumer protection, tax reform, desegregation of schools and reform of the filibuster. In 1975, he played an important role as a member of the Church Committee which intelligence abuses and led to significant reform of the Central Intelligence Agency.
In 1976, Mondale was elected Vice President of the United States on the ticket with President Jimmy Carter. He was the first Vice President to have an office in the White House and his partnership with President Carter established the modern role of the Vice President as an activist and full partner with the President. He was a close adviser to President Carter and a troubleshooter for the Administration. He traveled widely on behalf of the United States and played a formidable role in the Camp David Accords, a major step on the road to peace in the Middle East. Carter and Mondale were defeated for re-election in 1980.
In 1984, Mondale was the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. He chose U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, a historic choice as the first woman to run on a major party ticket for the White House. They were defeated by President Reagan and Vice President Bush. Walter and Joan Mondale then returned to private life in Minnesota.
Mondale returned to the practice of law, joining the Minneapolis firm of Dorsey and Whitney. He established a special relationship with the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He taught frequently at the school and established the Mondale Policy Forum which gave young policy makers an intense focus on both domestic and international issues. Among the many non-profit boards on which he served included the Guthrie Theater Foundation, the Mayo Foundation, the National Democratic Institute and the University of Minnesota Foundation.
In 1993, Walter and Joan Mondale returned to public service when President Clinton appointed Mondale U.S. Ambassador to Japan, where they served until 1996. During the Clinton Administration, he chaired a bipartisan group to study campaign finance reform and served as the President’s Special Envoy to Indonesia in 1998. Again, returning to Minnesota, Mr. Mondale rejoined the Dorsey Law Firm and continued his long commitment to teaching at the Humphrey Institute (now School) of Public Affairs in partnership with Larry Jacobs, Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. He was also devoted to the University of Minnesota Law School and in 2001, the school renamed its building as “Walter F. Mondale Hall” in honor of one of its most distinguished alumni from the Class of ’56. He also served as the Honorary Counsel General of Norway, based in Minneapolis, from 2008-2010.
Joan Mondale died in 2014. Throughout their long life together, Fritz was especially proud of Joan’s promotion of the arts and her own many talents as an artist. He loved that she was known as Joan of Art and established a scholarship for young artists in her honor at Macalester College in St. Paul. The Mondales had three children: Theodore, Eleanor and William. Eleanor died of brain cancer in 2011. In addition to his sons, Mondale is survived by grandchildren Louis, Amanda, Berit and Charlotte Mondale, and Cassandra and Danielle Miller; daughter-in-law Rebecca Mondale; son-in-law Chan Poling; brother Mort Mondale; sisters-in-law Ginny Mondale and Maria Mondale; brother-in-law Judge William Canby and many nieces and nephews.
In 1975, Mondale authored “The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency”; in 2010 he co-authored, with David Hage, “The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics.”
Walter Mondale was one of finest public servants in the history of the State of Minnesota, a good, decent and kind man who loved his state and his country and contributed greatly to the successes of the past sixty years. The many women and men who worked with Mondale could not have had a better mentor, boss and colleague. He took the time to keep in close touch with all of them. In recent years, his wise counsel and keen observations were eagerly sought by a new generation of public officials and his remarkable insights were invaluable to his students at the school named for his mentor and close friend Hubert Humphrey. From tiny towns in depression-era Minnesota to the State Capitol in St. Paul to the halls of decision making in Washington, D.C. and beyond, his was a life well-lived and a life of service.
VIDEO Clip from a 2018 HHH School program for his 90th birthday: https://vimeo.com/538884269
Memorials are preferred to:
University of Minnesota
Contributions can be made in memory of The Honorable Walter F. Mondale to the University of Minnesota Law School, or to the Hubert H. Humphrey School of public affairs. Please address checks to the University of Minnesota Foundation and mail to PO Box 860266 Minneapolis, MN 55486-0266 or make a gift online at give.umn.edu/law or give.umn.edu/Humphrey.
Macalester College
You may either make a gift online at www.Macalester.edu/supportmac or mail a check to Macalester College, c/o Advancement, 1600 Grand Ave Saint Paul, MN 55105. Please note “In memory of The Honorable Walter F. Mondale” on your check or in the comments for online giving.
MAYO CLINIC: Donations can be made online or by mail; Online – https://philanthropy.mayoclinic.org/donatemc (Under “tribute information” please indicate the gift is in memory of The Honorable Walter F. Mondale), or by Mail – Checks can be written directly to Mayo Clinic and mailed to Mayo Clinic Department of Development, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905 (In the memo line of the check or on a separate please indicate that the donation is in memory of The Honorable Walter F. Mondale)
St. Croix River Association
Contributions can be made in memory of The Honorable Walter F. Mondale to the St. Croix River Association. Please address checks to the St. Croix River Association ad mail to PO Box 655
St. Croix Falls, WI 54024, or make a gift online at https://stcroixriverassociation.org/support/donate/
SOURCE Mondale Family
