News from St. Olaf
St. Olaf College News Bureau o 1308 St. Olaf Avenue o Northfield, MN 55057-1098
May 17, 1999
Media contact: Michael Cooper, [email protected]
Voice telephone: (507) 646-3316; fax: (507) 646-3033
For Immediate Release
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Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale
to speak at St. Olaf College commencement
NORTHFIELD, Minn. - Former U.S. Vice President and ambassador to Japan Walter F. Mondale will be guest speaker at St. Olaf College's 110th annual commencement Sunday, May 23.
Walter Frederick ("Fritz") Mondale was elected vice president of the United States in 1976, serving with President Jimmy Carter. Mondale was a full-time advisor and troubleshooter for the Carter Administration, traveling extensively throughout the country and the world advocating U.S. policy. He was the first vice president to have an office in the White House.
In 1984 Mondale was the Democratic Party's nominee for president, and after that election he practiced law, taught, studied, traveled and served as a director of non-profit and corporate boards. He returned to his native Minnesota in 1987, where he practiced law with the firm of Dorsey & Whitney and served as Distinguished University Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. In 1990 he established the Mondale Policy Forum at the Humphrey Institute, bringing together leading scholars and policymakers for conferences on domestic and international issues.
From 1986 to 1993 he was chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, an organization that conducts non-partisan international programs to maintain and strengthen democratic institutions.
In 1993 President Clinton nominated Mondale as U.S. ambassador to Japan. He served as ambassador for three years, until Dec. 15, 1996, negotiating several U.S.-Japan security and trade agreements, including a resolution to the controversial U.S. military presence in Okinawa, and promoting the expansion of educational exchanges between the two nations.
Since returning from Japan, Mondale has been director of several non-profit and corporate boards, including the Japan Society, the Mayo Foundation, the University of Minnesota Foundation, and several for-profit corporate boards. Mondale also is senior Japan advisor to Goldman Sachs & Co.
Mondale is a member of the executive committee of the Peace Prize Forum, an annual conference co-sponsored by the Norwegian Nobel Institute and five Midwestern colleges, including St. Olaf College (host of next year's event). In 1997 and 1998 Mondale was co-chair of the independent, bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Project, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and staffed by the Aspen Institute.
Before his election as vice president, Mondale served as U.S. senator from Minnesota for 12 years after being appointed to fill the vacancy created by Hubert Humphrey's election as vice president. Mondale was elected to the Senate in 1966 and 1972.
He entered politics while still in college, helping to manage Humphrey's first successful U.S. Senate campaign in 1948. He graduated from the U of M in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in political science. After serving in the U.S. Army, he returned to the U of M Law School, where he earned an LL.B. (cum laude).
He served as a law clerk in the Minnesota Supreme Court, practiced law for four years and in 1960 was appointed state attorney general by Minnesota Gov. Orville Freeman. In 1962 he was elected to the office.
Mondale has written one book, The Accountability of Power: Toward a Responsible Presidency, as well as several articles on domestic and international issues. He and his wife, Joan, have three children, Theodore, Eleanor Jane and William, as well as three grandchildren.
The May 23 commencement address won't be Mondale's first appearance on the St. Olaf College campus; in 1969 he received an honorary degree from St. Olaf. Commencement ceremonies, open to family and friends of the graduates, will start at 2:30 p.m. on Manitou Field. (In case of inclement weather, commencement will be in Skoglund Center Auditorium.) Approximately 670 men and women will graduate during the ceremony.
In addition to Mondale's commencement talk, the "Traditions & Transitions" Alumni/ae and Commencement Weekend will include dozens of luncheons, dinners and other reunion events for St. Olaf alumni/ae. Senior class speaker during commencement will be Erica Schemper, an English, religion and Medieval studies major from Chicago. Baccalaureate services for graduating seniors will be at 9 a.m. Sunday, May 23, in Skoglund Center.
As part of the May 21-23 weekend, four people will receive Distinguished Alumni/ae Awards: A missionary who helps the poor in Chile, a renowned church musician, an entrepreneur who develops companies that solve technology needs, and the leader of an international medical products company.
St. Olaf is a four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with a student enrollment of 2,939 and a full-time faculty of 260. The college is nationally known for its art, music, science, pre-medicine, mathematics, pre-law, international studies and religion curricula. It ranks 13th on U.S. News & World Report's list of "best values" among national liberal arts colleges. It is one of Money Guide's top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation's colleges in number of students who study abroad.
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