President Joe Biden is among the dignitaries in Minneapolis on Sunday to remember former Vice President Walter Mondale at a memorial service that his family delayed for a year due to the pandemic.
Mondale died in April 2021 at age 93. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden wanted to attend the memorial because he had “an important personal relationship” with Mondale.
Biden has described Mondale as “one of our nation’s most dedicated patriots and public servants.”
Other speakers for the event at the University of Minnesota include Gov. Tim Walz, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, and Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the university’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Presidential historian Jon Meacham will deliver the keynote eulogy.
Admission to the memorial service is by invitation only, but the Pioneer Press is livestreaming it. A public steam also is available here. It’s scheduled to run from 1:30 to 3 p.m. CDT.
Mondale followed the trail blazed by his political mentor, Hubert H. Humphrey, from Minnesota politics to the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency, serving under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. He lost one of the most lopsided presidential elections after bluntly telling voters in 1984 to expect a tax increase if he defeated Republican Ronald Reagan.
But well after his bruising loss, Mondale remained a revered liberal elder and went on to serve as ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton. In 2002, Mondale came out of political retirement to run, unsuccessfully, for the Senate in place of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who had died in a plane crash.
Biden paid tribute to Mondale at the time of his death last year, saying: “There have been few senators, before or since, who commanded such universal respect. … It was Walter Mondale who defined the vice presidency as a full partnership, and helped provide a model for my service.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, left, and his former Vice President Walter Mondale work on Melo Lawson’s North Minneapolis house as Habitat for Humanity held their 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, a week-long initiative to build, renovate and repair 26 homes in the Twin Cities, on Oct. 6, 2010. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale and his wife, Joan, pause for a moment before leaving the church following services for their daughter ,Eleanor Mondale Poling, at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Minneapolis on Oct. 5, 2011. Mondale Poling passed away in September at age 51, after a long battle with cancer. (Jim Gehrz / Star Tribune via AP, Pool)
Former President Bill Clinton, left, and former Vice President Walter Mondale share a laugh during the dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Memorial on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, left, and former President Bill Clinton assist members of the Hubert H. Humphrey family to unveil a statue of Humphrey, during the dedication of a memorial to the late Senator, on the State Capitol grounds in St. Paul on Saturday, Aug.4, 2012. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale applauds as President Barack Obama speaks Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center in North Minneapolis, discussing with local leaders and law enforcement officials his ideas to reduce gun violence. At right is St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, right, laughs while after stopping by the office of former Attorney General of Minnesota Warren Spannaus, left, at Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday, March 21, 2013. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, center, laughs as former President Jimmy Carter reads an entry from his presidential journal about how, because of Walter’s wife, Joan Mondale, he ended up spending more time working on arts funding than Middle East peace while in office, during during a memorial service for Joan Mondale at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014. At left is Ted Mondale, right is Rosalynn Carter. Joan Mondale died Monday at 83. (Ben Garvin / Pioneer Press)
Former Vice President Walter Mondale is interviewed 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. (Andy Rathbun / Pioneer Press)
Civil rights pioneer Dr. Josie Johnson, from left, former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Governor Al Quie listen to audio of former President Lyndon Johnson’s famous voting rights speech, where he called on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, at the beginning of a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act at the Landmark Center in St. Paul on Thursday, July 30, 2015. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)
Former President Jimmy Carter waves as he participates in a tribute to former Vice President Walter Mondale, left, in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
