Former Vice President Walter Mondale's farewell message to staff

Walter Mondale 1

Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale dies at 93

Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale dies at 93

Agency Report

Walter Mondale wrote a farewell letter to his staff, two days to his death on Monday, thanking them for years working together.

In the letter, Mondale noted that he was set to join his wife who died in 2014, and daughter Eleanor, who died in 2011 at age 51.

Read his farewell letter below

Dear Team,

Well my time has come. I am eager to rejoin Joan and Eleanor. Before I Go I wanted to let you know how much you mean to me. Never has a public servant had a better group of people working at their side!

Together we have accomplished so much and I know you will keep up the good fight.

Joe in the White House certainly helps.

I always knew it would be okay if I arrived some place and was greeted by one of you!

My best to all of you!

Walter Mondale

Mondale was a leading liberal Democratic voice of the late 20th century.

He was U.S. vice president under Jimmy Carter and lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.

Mondale was the first major U.S. party presidential nominee to pick a woman running mate.

He believed in an activist government and worked for civil rights, school integration, consumer protection and farm and labor interests as a U.S. senator and vice president during Carter’s troubled one-term presidency from 1977 to 1981.

He also served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1993 to 1996 under Bill Clinton.

Mondale had spoken in recent days with Carter, Clinton, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, a family spokesperson said.

“It’s with great sadness that Jill and I learned of the passing of Vice President Walter Mondale, but great gratitude that we were able to call one of our nation’s most dedicated patriots and public servants a dear friend and mentor,” President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said in a statement.

“Walter Mondale was the first presidential nominee of either party to select a woman as his running mate, and I know how pleased he was to be able to see Kamala Harris become Vice President,” Biden’s statement added.

Mondale married wife Joan in 1955. She died in 2014. They had three children, Eleanor and sons Theodore and William.

Plans for memorials will be announced later for both Minnesota and Washington D.C., Mondale family said.

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