Walter Mondale Memorial Service Set For Spring In Minneapolis

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Former Vice President Walter Mondale is seen here May 5, 2015 at Dorsey & Whitney law firm in downtown Minneapolis. — Former Vice President Walter Mondale is seen here Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at Dorsey & Whitney law firm in downtown Minneapolis. Together with Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, Mondale helped the St. Croix River become one of the first National Wild and Scenic Rivers. He’ll speak on the future of Wild and Scenic Rivers May 21 in Stillwater. (Pioneer Press: Andy Rathbun)

By Bill Salisbury | Pioneer PressPUBLISHED: March 8, 2022 at 5:53 PM CST | UPDATED: March 14, 2022 at 4:31 PM CDTGetting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A memorial service honoring the life and legacy of former Vice President Walter Mondale will be held at the University of Minnesota on Sunday, May 1.

The service, an afternoon of remembrance and reflection, is scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at Northrop Auditorium on the Minneapolis campus. The event will be live streamed for those who cannot attend in person.

There will not be a memorial service for the former vice president in Washington, D.C.

Mondale died in Minneapolis on April 19, 2021, at age 93.

Born in Ceylon, Minn., in 1928, he was appointed to his first public office, Minnesota Attorney General, by Gov. Orville Freeman in 1960. Four years later, Gov. Karl Rolvaag chose him to fill the U.S. Senate seat that Hubert Humphrey vacated after he was elected vice president. Mondale was first elected to the Senate in 1966 and re-elected in 1972.

When Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, he selected Mondale as his running mate. After Carter and Mondale were defeated in their bid for re-election in 1980, the former vice president resumed practicing law.

Mondale won the Democratic nomination for president in 1984, but he lost the election in a landslide to Republican President Ronald Reagan. He returned to private law practice in Minneapolis in 1987.

President Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to Japan in 1993.

When U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was running for re-election, died in a plane crash in 2002, Minnesota Democrats chose Mondale to replace the senator on the ballot. Republican Norm Coleman narrowly defeated Mondale for that seat.

In retirement, Mondale often taught classes at the University of Minnesota Law School and the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs.