President Joe Biden
At his core, Fritz embraced all people, with the idea that everybody’s entitled to be handled with dignity. Everyone. Dignity. Not simply the fitting to vote — dignity.
He was cherished by the American individuals as a result of he mirrored the goodness of the American individuals — particularly the individuals of Minnesota.
Each senator wears on his or her sleeve the state they serve. However the love Fritz had for the individuals of Minnesota ran deeper than that. He cherished you all, and you really liked him again, and it is apparent as a result of Fritz mirrored the easiest qualities of this state: the heat and optimism that you simply mirror.
At each flip, Fritz mirrored the sunshine of this nation. Who we’re, and what we could be.
President Barack Obama (letter)
I am honored to pay tribute to Fritz, a person who devoted his life to creating authorities work for the American individuals.
In championing causes like honest housing and ladies’s rights, he helped put the promise of America inside attain for extra individuals. And he modified the function of vp, so President Biden might be the final within the room for selections throughout my administration — one thing I’ll at all times be glad about.
Fritz’s lifetime of service was an unimaginable present to our nation. As we mirror on his legacy, might all of us attempt to embody his integrity, his humility, and his unwavering drive to do proper by Minnesotans and other people in all places.
President Invoice Clinton (letter)
I so want I might be with all of you on the College of Minnesota to recollect the extraordinary lifetime of my good friend Vice President Walter Mondale.
All through his lengthy life, Fritz by no means stopped believing within the energy of public service to make a distinction in individuals’s lives. As Minnesota Lawyer Common, Senator, Vice President, Democratic nominee for President, Ambassador, and personal citizen, he put his deep coverage information, tireless work ethic, and unusual decency and kindness to work — to develop civil rights and defend civil liberties; create extra instructional and financial alternatives for all People; and fulfill our Founders’ cost to kind a extra good union. And he did all of it, in sunshine and storms, with humility, grace, and a beautiful humorousness.
I’ll at all times be glad about the greater than 40 years of friendship he gave Hillary and me, and his superb service as each Ambassador to Japan and Particular Envoy to Indonesia after I was President. Though these had been the final public places of work he held, his public service continued for an additional twenty years, at all times preventing for the causes he cherished and the nation he believed in, and having a very good time doing it.
As you collect to rejoice Fritz’s exceptional life, I am considering of his joyful religious reunion with Joan and Eleanor, and his attribute conviction that absolutely there’s something he can do to make the universe higher. My coronary heart goes out to Ted, William, his total household, and all of the individuals who had been blessed by his friendship, impressed by his service, and enriched by his instance.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar
It was not straightforward for Walter Mondale to run in opposition to Ronald Reagan, figuring out that most individuals had been predicting that Reagan would win.
It was not straightforward for Walter Mondale to return out of retirement and run for the Senate after we misplaced Paul Wellstone.
It was not straightforward for Walter Mondale to proceed his work whereas caring for his beloved spouse, Joan, and their daughter, Eleanor, via heartbreaking sicknesses.
None of it was straightforward. However when saddled with huge setbacks, Fritz did not stand down; he stood up. Fritz did not crawl beneath his desk or cover from public view; he merely discovered a unique approach to serve.
He went from being pushed round with tons of Secret Service and assembly with world leaders and negotiating worldwide treaties to going into Lunds, grocery procuring on his personal and fortunately ending his go to with a protracted, engaged speak about Mideast peace with the highschool child on the checkout counter. That occurred.
You see, being humble meant that it was a lot simpler to be resilient.
Being grounded meant that regardless of how excessive he had risen, there was at all times a spot to return dwelling.
That place was right here. That place was us.
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith
This week, I’ve been studying quite a lot of tributes to Mr. Mondale’s life and his legacy.
President Carter wrote: “His concepts and vitality modified the workplace he held endlessly, and his intelligence, his expertise and humor and willpower made me higher at mine.”
President Clinton noticed that “all through his lengthy life, Fritz by no means stopped believing within the energy of public service to make a distinction in individuals’s lives.”
And President Obama described Mondale’s lifetime of service as, and I quote, “an unimaginable present to his nation,” including, “in championing causes like honest housing and ladies’s rights, he helped put the promise of America inside the attain of extra individuals.”
As I have been studying all these notes, I have been studying some despatched by individuals who labored for Walter Mondale when he ran for president and by no means actually left his orbit. One is from a former staffer, Gina Glantz, who advised the story of how, when her mother obtained sick, and the Mayo Clinic appeared like actually the one possibility for remedy, she labored up the nerve to ask Mr. Mondale for assist. Nicely, Vice President Mondale referred to as a retired nurse good friend, and inside weeks, Gina’s mom was on the Mayo, with the particular person behind the check-in desk at Mayo saying, “And the way are you aware our Fritz?”
So many People had been referred to as to motion by that 1984 marketing campaign, a marketing campaign rooted in fact and decency and hope. And 4 many years later, a lot of them, a lot of you, are nonetheless concerned in politics, nonetheless working to uphold the values that outlined Walter Mondale’s exceptional life — and regardless that many people have but to discover a boss who, actually, we had such a private connection to.
Gov. Tim Walz
Walter Mondale modified each particular person he got here involved with. He modified this state, he modified this nation and he modified this world, all for the higher.
Fritz was a nationwide determine, however at coronary heart — and everybody on this room is aware of — he was at all times only a boy from southern Minnesota. He embodied a way of pleasure. He lived his life each single day with that pleasure on the forefront.
At 91, he was nonetheless fishing for walleye. Not like me, he was catching them.
Everybody who met Fritz Mondale thought of him a good friend. Few individuals I’ve ever met did you’re feeling had been extra current whenever you had been with them. There was no place he wanted to be. There was no-one extra necessary than that second. And each particular person I’ve ever talked to felt that.
Arne Carlson, former Minnesota governor (letter)
Immediately, we rejoice the lifetime of Minnesota’s most interesting; Walter Mondale. Little doubt there will probably be remembrances of his management on a number of points starting from human rights to world peace. However the highest tribute is to honor his values and provides them immortality.
At first has been his dedication to equity. He noticed it within the mild of endlessly pursuing the elimination of all boundaries to achievement for all individuals. His imaginative and prescient for our democracy was a fair taking part in discipline and, I think, he would outline the American Dream in that very same context.
That enveloping philosophy led him to pursue insurance policies that enhanced the standard of life for all individuals starting from common entry to high quality and inexpensive well being care to ending violence whether or not by struggle or the limitless slaughter of harmless victims of gun violence.
And he understood the need of serving as stewards of the land we inherited. His work to avoid wasting the BWCA and the St. Croix will at all times stay memorable. However, he additionally stayed present and challenged us to be ever vigilant of the monied pursuits who need to transform nature’s bounty to non-public acquire. It was this that led him to publicly oppose sulfide mining which threatens our useful waters.
All the time concerned, at all times supportive of full public debate, and at all times respectable. However, his sense of decency was by no means be seen as an indication of weak point, No, Walter Mondale was by no means guided by the chances or the polls, however relatively the rightness of the trigger.
So in the present day, we pay tribute to a real chief and protector of the general public good. And, hopefully, we are going to all make his values our values. We might do no higher.
Rev. Tim Hart-Andersen, Westminster Presbyterian Church
Fritz Mondale was born into a house steeped in biblical knowledge. Theodore, his Methodist pastor father, would have been educated for the ministry within the time when the social gospel was ascendant. The values of doing good and making the world a greater place for all had been taught within the Mondale family and in Sunday college by Fritz’s mom, Claribel, who additionally performed the piano at church.
“I imagine I attended extra church companies,” Fritz as soon as stated, “Sang in additional weddings and funerals, attended extra Sunday colleges, than any public official within the historical past of southern Minnesota.”
His household drew from the properly of Methodist instructing that linked ardour, self-discipline, mind and concern for “the least of those.” It was a potent mixture of a coronary heart aflame with rigorous dedication to serve probably the most susceptible in society. That theological context shaped younger Fritz, and it will outline his character all his life.
“My religion and my household have been my best blessings in my life,” he stated in a speech not way back. “I used to be taught that ours was a religion of decency and social justice, based mostly on the good commandment to like your God and to like your neighbor as your self.”
Like many people, Fritz didn’t put on his religion on his sleeve. The truth is, he was suspicious of anybody who did. His was a Beatitudes-based religion, drawing on the straightforward instructing of Jesus: Blessed are those that are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those that are poor, for theirs is the dominion of God. Blessed are those that make peace, for they are going to be referred to as youngsters of God.
Josie Johnson, “First Girl of Minnesota Civil Rights”
I by no means will overlook how excited I used to be on the considered Fritz Mondale working for president. I by no means will overlook how honored I felt.
This humble man, who at all times welcomed different factors of view and inspired everybody in his sphere to be open, to be inclusive, to be simply, and the considered him working for president of the USA of America, was simply such a beautiful, unbelievable thought that many people had, as a result of he was such a humble particular person.
And for him to grasp that who he was and what he represented was what we would have liked in our society made us all wish to be engaged in every thing we might be engaged in and get that message out to the general public and to the neighborhood.
Joan Gabel, College of Minnesota president
On behalf of a grateful college, we acknowledge with appreciation the numerous and provoking methods Vice President Mondale gave again to his alma mater and made us all higher — as a instructor and chief, as a namesake and benefactor to our regulation college and Humphrey College fellowship program and as a good friend and mentor to college students and colleagues alike.
The College of Minnesota is lucky to have held such a particular place in his universe — and throughout his exemplary lifetime of dedication and repair to Minnesota and the world, as vp, U.S. senator, presidential candidate, U.S. ambassador to Japan and Minnesota’s lawyer basic.
It’s subsequently left to us to step into his indelible footprints — right here at his alma mater, within the hearts of our college household and all through the world.
So, let the trail he solid information us in his ever-optimistic manner, and let it heal us, so we are able to guarantee, in his honor, that our greatest days nonetheless lie forward.
Larry Jacobs, Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Research on the Humphrey College of Public Affairs
For 16 years, Walter Mondale and I labored collectively on plenty of initiatives. However Walter Mondale introduced his best ardour to instructing. We taught 1000’s of scholars right here on the College of Minnesota: undergraduates, graduates, of us who had been auditing and wished to take the category. He was a breath of recent air; he was rigorous and he was demanding. I wish to speak a bit of bit about a few of these options.
Preparation and seriousness are Mondale traits, significantly Professor Mondale. Throughout one group presentation, Mr. Mondale pointed to a pupil who was leaning in opposition to the chalkboard, put up his fingers to cease the group presentation and stated, “Get up. Persuade us that you simply really imagine what you are saying.”
The scholar stood up, and all of us thought, “Oh my God. All the time arise straight.”
I used to be not immune from the scrutiny. Throughout one class, after I was rigorously, I assumed, relating the readings for the category and the subject at hand, Mr. Mondale raised his hand. He requested a query that in all probability extra of my colleagues must be requested on occasion, although we would desire it not be requested by a former vp of the USA. Mr. Mondale requested, “What are you speaking about?”
