The Reverend Robert Lester Mondale (May 28, 1904 – August 19, 2003) was an American
Unitarian minister and
Humanist.
Biography
Mondale was born in
Walnut Grove, Minnesota, the son of
Methodist minister and
World War I hero Theodore Sigvaard Mondale and Jessie Alice Larson.
Although his family was Methodist, he converted to
Unitarianism while earning his
B.A. from
Hamline University. In 1926 Mondale entered the Unitarian ministry and in 1929 he earned an
S.T.B. from
Harvard Divinity School. He was ordained by the New North Unitarian Church,
Hingham, Massachusetts, and went on to serve congregations in
Evanston, Illinois,
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
;
Birmingham, Michigan;
White Plains, New York;
Tempe, Arizona; and
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...
. His younger half-brother was
Walter Mondale,
Vice-President of the United States under
Jimmy Carter.
He was married three times. From his first wife, Edith Eldred Klose (1904-1987) he had one daughter, Tarand Elose Mondale Swenstad (1931-2007). From his second wife, Fay A. Smead (1907-1976), he had three daughters: Ellen Smead Mondale (1943-2019), Karen Smead Mondale and Julia Smead Kellum Mondale Jensen.
He married his third wife, Rosemary Delap (July 14, 1917-February 28, 2022) on May 31, 1961. He was survived by his third and last wife.
Selected publications
*''The Missouri still runs wild'', Westport Pub. Co. (Kansas City, MO) 1943
*''Three Unitarian philosophies of religion'', Beacon Press (Boston) 1946
*''The Unitarian way of life'', Beacon Press (Boston) 1943
*''Values in world religions'', Starr King Press 1958
*''Preachers in Purgatory With Reference to Accounts of More Than a Hundred Ministers Reporting on Crisis Situations'', Beacon Press 1966
*''New Man of Religious Humanism'', Volturna Press 1973
References
External links
Press release announcing his deathby Mondale
by Mondale.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mondale, Lester
1904 births
2003 deaths
People from Walnut Grove, Minnesota
American humanists
American Unitarian Universalists
Hamline University alumni
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Walter Mondale
Writers from Minnesota
Former Methodists