Two University of Minnesota events next week will mark Walter Mondale's 80th birthday.
The Law School's Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center is opening the exhibit "A Voice of Wisdom, Compassion, and Hope: A Celebration of the Life and Career of Walter Mondale" on Monday.
The exhibit will feature photographs and documents from the Library of Congress, the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, the Minnesota Historical Society and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. For the research center's location and hours, visit www.startribune.com/a4223.
Also Monday, in recognition of the former vice president's Jan. 5 birthday, Sen.Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will deliver the Law Library Distinguished Lecture, "A Celebration of the Life and Career of Vice President Walter Mondale." Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., will also speak.
The lecture, which is not open to the public, will take place at the U's Mondale Hall.
Mondale earned a political science degree from the University of Minnesota in 1951. He graduated from the Law School in 1956 and clerked for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Thomas Gallagher. He also served as Minnesota's attorney general, a U.S. senator and vice president in the Carter administration.
He ran for president in 1984 as the Democratic nominee, losing to President Ronald Reagan. Mondale served as U.S. ambassador to Japan in the Clinton administration.
PAUL WALSH
