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I just had lunch with my grandson,” said former Vice President Walter Mondale when he was interviewed for this story in July. “He is now 18, got a job downtown this summer, going to Macalester this fall, full of excitement—what he’s going to do, where he’s going to go. He plays baseball and he’s thinking about spring training camp, and oh man I didn’t want the lunch to end!” That quote gives an insightful glimpse into the personality of Walter Mondale. He is a friendly, laid back, yet impressive person. Despite his many years of moving in the upper echelon of political circles, he is on the same plane with whomever he talks to and is comfortable with people who call him by his nickname, Fritz. He has a genuine enthusiasm for people and their life plans especially a grandson who is starting his adulthood at the same age, the same way and the same place as he did his. In 1946 Mondale chose Macalester College to start his career. The reason for his choice–there was a young liberal professor named Hubert Humphrey who had taught there and had just become Mayor of Minneapolis. He helped manage and worked hard for Humphrey’s successful 1948 Senate campaign; he later did the same for Orville Freeman’s 1954 campaign for governor. Graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1951 with a B.A. degree in Political Science, he wanted to continue his education through law school, but he didn’t have the money. Two years in the army took care of that problem and he sailed through the University of Minnesota Law School on the GI Bill of Rights graduating LL.B (Cum laude) in 1956. While going to law school he had a fortuitous meeting with a young lady on a blind date. Her name was Joan Adams and she had graduated from Macalester in 1952 as an Arts and History major and had already started her art career at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. She had been a freshman at Macalester while Mondale was an upperclassman and they had never gotten to know each other well until that blind date. It didn’t take long, though, to become engaged and married. The wedding was in December 1955 and they brought into the world three children Ted, Eleanor and William, who have all gone on to productive and successful careers. In 1960 Minnesota Attorney General Miles Lord received an appointment to the United States Attorney General office in Washington and Governor Freeman appointed Mondale to fill out Lord’s term. Mondale got high marks as Attorney General and was reelected twice. In 1964 the Lyndon Johnson/ Hubert Humphrey ticket won the Presidency and Mondale was appointed by Governor Karl Rolvaag to fill out Senator Humphrey’s term. He again found success in an appointed role and was reelected twice to that seat and served until he was selected by Jimmy Carter to be his running mate in the 1976 Presidential race. President Carter wanted his Vice President to do more than preside over the senate (the only duty the Constitution gives the VP – besides waiting for the president to become incapacitated). And more Mondale did. Carter changed the Vice President from a figurehead to a full partner, with an office in the West Wing. It was a first. Mondale traveled the nation and world on the president’s behalf, advocating U.S. policy. He was a full-time participant, advisor and troubleshooter for the administration and a key participant in Carter’s historic 1978 Camp David Accords that brought peace between Israel and Egypt. Progress was made during the Carter administration, but on November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 hostages including the Consul General and Vice Consul. In 1980 Carter and Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In 1984 Mondale ran as the Democratic presidential candidate and while doing so contributed another big first. He selected New York representative Geraldine A. Ferraro as his running mate. “I knew that we were trailing Reagan and I wanted to do something that mattered, that would change things so that we would go at it in a fresh way,” said Mondale. “I always believed in opening doors, so I decided that Ms. Ferraro would be my running mate and we would go to the American people for the first time in American history with a ticket that contained a man and a woman. I feel good about that; I think that helped break some ice.” The Mondale/Ferraro ticket lost to the Reagan/Bush ticket, but it wasn’t Mondale’s selection of Ferraro that did it. In 2004 on a Jim Lehrer PBS News Hour, syndicated columnist and political analyst on the show, Mark Shields told Mondale, “Dick Wirthlein, who was Ronald Reagan’s pollster, told me that the one night of the year where Fritz Mondale and their polling led Ronald Reagan beyond the margin of error was the night you named Geraldine Ferraro as your running mate, and they got quite nervous.” Mondale was also questioned on the show about a statement on raising taxes he made in his 1984 acceptance speech, which some people suggested had helped Reagan win. Mondale said in his speech that because of the growing budget deficit Reagan would have to raise taxes, and so would he. “He (Reagan) won’t tell you. I just did.” “It may have hurt me,” Mondale told Lehrer, “but I don’t think truth telling is a bad idea.” The Mondales came back to Minnesota after that defeat, Mondale keeping active in politics and law and Joan in art until President Bill Clinton appointed Mondale Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan in 1993. “I loved my time in Japan, as both Joan and I did,” said Mondale. Joan was the niece of the late Edwin Reischauer, American Ambass-ador to Japan under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Reischauer, who Mondale called the gold standard, was born and raised in Japan and spoke Japanese fluently. When the Mondales arrived in Japan there were many disputes over trade. By the time their tenure ended, the disputes were basically settled and they then went on with a United States Japan Security treaty that Mondale calls “Wonderful.” “I felt good about it,” says Mondale. “I’m not saying I did it because I didn’t, but I was just one of those involved in what I think were challenging but yet very good years in our relationship.” It wasn’t only diplomacy that made the Mondale years in Japan successful—Joan Mondale in working with American and Japanese artists and Mondale in reaching out to students, both American and Japanese, added greatly. If he were to do one thing in the world, Mondale says, “I would do this: I would get young people from all countries together with each other and as many of them as possible in each other’s schools and in each other’s homes and families because when you’re young you’re still open minded and hopefully you haven’t accumulated the prejudices and the fears that sometimes take us over… you can really become somebody different.” “When I was in Japan I worked very hard trying to get more Japanese students coming to the United States and more American students coming to Japan. I think we raised the level on that.” When the Mondales came home their success was acknowledge by the Japan America Society of Minnesota (JASM) by making them the first recipients of the society’s prestigious Mondale award and making Mondale the honorary chair of JASM. Noting Mondale’s belief in the importance of student exchanges, the society also started the Mondale scholarships for Minnesota students studying in Japan. Mondale still attends international conferences, he’s a board member of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation (Mike Mansfield held the office of American Ambassador to Japan longer then anyone in history), in August he will be a super delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Denver, he is a partner in the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney, serving as Senior Counsel in the International/ Corporate group and in July he became Honorary Consul General to Norway. Yes he’s busy, but he maintains a firm connection with his family, regularly lunching with the grandkids or having breakfast with daughter Eleanor. Eleanor, who has garnered her own share of media attention, has been a radio and television host here and nationwide for many years. She also raises, trains and rides horses. She is currently on WCCO radio. Mondale calls her a tremendous joy in their lives. In a difficult turn of events for any family, almost four years ago she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She took treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and it seemed as if they got it all, but at the beginning of this year the cancer had returned. This time she had surgery. “She’s back on her feet and doing well,” said Mondale. “She’s working again at WCCO which she loves. She’s riding horses again and she comes by every morning and has breakfast with us. She comes flying in around 6:15 in the morning and we have breakfast and she flies out again and we see her the next morning. It’s the high point of the day, (she has) tremendous spirit.” The Mondales are happy that the surgery so far seems to have eradicated the cancer, “all we have is to hope and pray.” And to rely on the positiveness and possibility that is characteristic of the Mondale legacy.
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Walter Mondale