A personal note on Walter Mondale
Former Vice President Walter Mondale died on Monday at the age of 93. His death brought back a flood of memories to me. I want to offer these personal notes on the occasion of his death.
I talked my way into an internship in then Minnesota Senator Mondale’s Washington office in the summer of 1969, just after I graduated from high school in St. Paul. I had gone to hear Mondale speak at an event that spring and tracked him down outside the building afterwards. I told Mondale that Syd Berde, his former chief deputy when he served as Minnesota Attorney General, had called him and recommended me to him. That’s what I had been given to understand, although I’m not sure it was accurate. (Mr. Berde was the father of my classmate Chuck Berde, by far the smartest student in our class. Chuck told me that his father had called Mondale on my behalf, as I had requested.)