It doesn’t seem that long ago, 28 years, when I last stood at this podium to eulogize our grandmother Gertrude Moran.

Today, I’d like to first, on behalf of myself, Michael, John and Mary-Jo thank everyone for joining us to celebrate our mother’s life. We hope you will join us after the service at the Country Club to do what Mom loved best — be at a party!

We’d especially like to recognize both our friends, her friends (too numerous to count) and our cousins who showed up for her these past few years. You have given her rides to meetings; called her frequently, sent her cards, flowers, or food; took her shopping; stopped by for a visit; or included her at your dinner parties or special events. You kept her engaged in her community and extended her quality of life. For this we are forever grateful.

I’d like to acknowledge how committed Michael, Mary Jo and John were to show up for her day after day, week after week, year after year, even when it required sacrificing things in their own lives. That’s love. My mother wanted to spend her whole life living in her house. Together, as a family and a community, we got her within 6 months of that finish line.

Now let’s talk about some of the highlights of Mary Moran Cosgrove’s life.

She was born on Election Day, November 4th, 1934. My great grandfather J.W. Moran proclaimed that night, “What a great day. I got a red-headed granddaughter and a Democratic Governor.”

Our mother was born with an amazing head of hair and political charm that she used, not to run for office, but to make good things happen in our lives and in our community. She did not live a charmed life rather she charmed all of those who came into her life.

Her father, Red Moran, was diagnosed with throat cancer when she was just 16 and she lost him at 26. She lost our dad just as they were preparing for retirement and a life of fun and travel. She did something no mother should ever have to do, she buried a son. Through it all she never lost her joy and passion for life.

Her life in Muncy Valley was defined by family and loving friendships with Nancy Shug O”Connor, Billie Krause and Jane Dubbs, to mention a few and a tight circle of cousins.

We are joined today by her closest cousin Ann Taylor. Mimi Lundy had a special place in her heart, too. They were joined by Jim Lundy, Tommy Moran and of course Bill Wood.

Speaking of Bill Wood, remember, I mentioned our mother’s ability to charm. She once shot her grandmother, Nan Moran, in the hand with Bill’s BB gun. Of course, it was Bill that got whooped for leaving it out and loaded. And Mom, who pulled the trigger, got no punishment at all.

At school in Sonestown — she was a favorite of her teachers. Years later Michael, Patrick and I had two of her teachers — Mrs. Gregory and Mrs. Haywood — and of course we suffered through being measured against our mother’s academic success.

She edited the school newspaper, was a cheerleader and involved with various clubs and managing her many suitors. No surprise, the graduation dinner for the class was hosted at her home.

After graduation in 1952, Mary left Sullivan County to charm a whole new group of friends. First at Dickinson College and then at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Our father had to work hard to win the suitor contest — mostly by dancing and yellow roses. Tom and Mary danced across the Halls and Clubs of Sullivan County for decades. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had nothing on Tom and Mary on the dance floor.

In 1956 she both graduated as a Registered Nurse and got married. Then in 1957, everything rapidly started to change — first I was born, followed by Michael, Patrick, John, and Mary Jo five children in six years. Jim Worthington wrote in his poem A Tribute to a Great Irishman which honored dad with both humor and respect.

Mary is his wife, and she’s a joy

For she has given him four great boys

And thank the lord for Dear Mary Jo

For she was the one that made them say, Whoa.

Dad’s life may have been captured in poetry, but Mom’s was captured in a song. Kenny Musselman wrote and performed the “Ballad of Mary Cosgrove,” Unfortunately it is not yet available on Spotify.

From her wedding day in 1956 till the very end, she was the nucleus of the Cosgrove and Moran families spread across the country. In-laws, nephews, nieces, grand-nephews, grand-nieces and cousins to the nth degree were a part of her life. Her home in Laporte was always open to all.

She was a loving and giving grandmother who was always up for anything with her grandchildren.

Billy and Jake kept her at the edge of her seat through demolition derbies,

trap shoots, red berry hunting, car parades and sporting events. One of her favorite things was going to see their trophies from a successful hunt.

She used to love to visit Patrick, often on the bus, for a day of New York — food, fashion and fun. Sometimes it was a road trip to visit “Uncle Pat” and she invented the “Truck” game to entertain Mary Jo and her grandsons during the long ride.

Her relationship with my children Tommy and Sophie centered on cookies. Mostly her chocolate chips and then every Christmas the legendary, giant sugar cookies. She would always remind us that she used her Great-Grandmother Jesse Taylor’s recipe with lard to make them.

She was thrilled to add Michael’s daughters Keri and Kelly as grandchildren. That meant she now had an equal number of granddaughters and grandsons.

I came to town with a eulogy already written and then last night talking with so many of you I realized I had forgotten something important. Something we are all proud of mom for, she changed lives. Both our parents had a unique ability to welcome any and all into their family. I know that sitting here today there are many of you that have experienced being a part of that extended family and feel like you lost a mother too.

We couldn’t honor my mother without talking about her lifelong love of dogs. Her first dog was Bob the Dog. Our family dogs, actually her dogs, in order: Bobbin, Duffy, Dipper, Murphy, Pink, Tar, Timber, Charlie and Bruno.

The last of course is Cosmo. It took 60 years for her to finally name a dog by combining Cosgrove and Moran. She slept downstairs for years so that Cosmo could sleep with her scrunched together on the couch, with Kitty cat asleep, often on her head.

Our mother was anything but a spectator in her community; she was always actively involved. I’ll not repeat the abbreviated. list of her accomplishments we published in her obituary but I do want to mention a couple that weren’t printed.

Did you know there is a waterfall on Mill Run named after her?

Did you know she holds an unofficial Guinness World Record for most hours sitting on a bleacher watching Griffin basketball games, often while knitting at the same time. I think it started with Jim Worthington’s team in the late 60s and continued, uninterrupted, until her last game in the Griffin Dome in January 2020.

One year her love of basketball inspired her to knit a mohair sweater for each of Michael’s Mansfield Basketball teammates. In recent years our brother John has honored Mom by developing his own knitting skills.

Her hospitality was unending and I know many of you enjoyed a delicious meal with her. Either one she cooked, a community gathering, or in a restaurant. It isn’t a surprise she would bake a cake, go to church, sell a house and then host Sunday dinner for all the family who were home.

However, did you know that her very favorite food to eat was a hot dog with ketchup and mustard shared with Bill Saxe, at any sporting event.

You also know that she could be stubborn and determined to get what she wanted.

Mom always believed that shopping was cheaper than counseling. And her favorite therapy was found at Yuki’s clothing store. Mary Jo, in managing Mom’s finances in later years, would be perplexed to discover a drawer full of Yuki invoices but no matching credit card receipts. Then recently, LuAnn spilled mom’s secret. Mom would take a wad of cash to Yuki’s, so when Mary Jo paid her credit card bill, she didn’t know how much mom truly spent on her shopping, excuse me, therapy day.

One freezing cold night Michael found her up at the Episcopal Church walking Charlie the dog wearing high heel purple pumps without a coat. He said what you are doing out dressed like that and her response “the dog needed to go and besides I get great traction when I dig these heels into the snow. Oh mom…

Mom had a gift to turn ordinary tasks into festive events. Prime example — She loved Christmas and always had to purchase the biggest, fattest Christmas tree. This always led to a heated discussion with dad. One Christmas, when the tree was particularly big — and with it our father’s annoyance, she managed to avoid his final fury she knew would arrive when he attempted to get it out of the house, by doing it herself. She invited her friends over for a delicious luncheon followed by dessert and a handsaw, so they could merrily remove branches and drag it out themselves. When dad got home from work, walla — the tree was gone! She had simply charmed it away.

Once before boarding a plane the TSA caught mom with a knife in her purse. When questioned she stated that it was her “good” knife that she always kept in her purse just in case she needed it to cut cheeses. The officer just gave mom a crazy look but she was serious. She was always prepared for spontaneous celebrations with friends that ended in wine and cheese. Wonder which friend stored the “emergency wine opener” in their purse?

One thing she inherited from her Mother, Gertrude, is as she aged she never lost her sense of humor or her ability to deliver a cutting line that totally took you by surprise.

We all experienced it. One of mine was when she had flown to Boston to visit and I picked her up in my new Chevy Tahoe. Now remember her Grandfather JW had one of the first Ford Garages in America and that she still owned a 1913 Ford Model T. She got in the Tahoe, looked around and said “Chevy. What’s next, are you going to become a Protestant or a Republican?”

There is so much more I wish we had time to share. But it’s time to draw this to a close.

I mostly listen to Michael’s advice and sadly regret when I don’t, so when I wrote Grandma’s eulogy I asked him if there was anything he wanted to be sure we shared about her as I stood here on the altar at St. Basils, He said, “Tell them she was #1.”

So, if you know that story, well, that is how I ended her eulogy.

I asked Michael the same question this week about Mom and he said, “Share the story about grandma and mom’s hair.

I once remarked to Grandma that our mother was a brunette. Her instant rebuke was “NO, brunettes are ordinary. Your mother’s hair is Titian. It is extraordinary just like her.

To save you from googling Titian it is a color of brown infused with red named after an Italian Renaissance painter.

That’s right our mother was extraordinary. And all of you who fell under her extraordinary charm, somewhere along her 87 years on this planet, you know it too. We were blessed to be mothered by, grandmothered by, loved by, fed by, nursed by, to be friends with, to be related to and to be charmed by the extraordinary, beautiful and beloved Mary Moran Cosgrove. As we say goodbye to her today we can continue to learn by her example, and strive to live a long, caring, festive, hospitable, loving, extraordinary life, too.

Thank you.

Guest Opinion: Tom Cosgrove: An appeal from the vaccinated

By DAILY CAMERA GUEST OPINION | openforum@dailycamera.com | Boulder Daily Camera

PUBLISHED: September 24, 2021 at 12:20 p.m. | UPDATED: September 24, 2021 at 1:06 p.m.

By Tom Cosgrove

Dr. Priscilla Chan is wife to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Together, they co-founded the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to fight disease and the CZI Biohub, a medical research center devoted to critical health issues including COVID-19.

If I were to write a public appeal to Dr. Chan on behalf of us vaccinated Americans, it would sound like this:

We, the 199 million vaccinated (with at least one dose) Americans, have a pressing need to speak with you about the coronavirus pandemic, specifically the Delta variant and its shockingly rapid spread among children across the country.

It is clear that as a nation we have failed to engage many of our fellow citizens in a unified fight against COVID. But you — and you alone — have the unique power to change that dynamic.

As a mother you understand the importance of keeping our children safe.

As a former pediatric resident at Boston’s Codman Health Care Center you understand that achieving a “culture of health” is not just about “alleviating sickness.” It is about galvanizing the community as a whole. With something as severe as a pandemic the urgency to create that engagement multiplies a hundredfold. It takes a coordinated campaign to stop a pandemic.

And as the life partner with Mark Zuckerberg, you have access to the most powerful influencer of public opinion on the planet: Facebook.

It’s time you used this combination to unleash Facebook’s algorithmic power to rebuild trust in science — from the community up.

Virtue signaling through the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative (CHI) is not enough. Look at this:

In June, CHI announced it was donating $15 million to engage the community in the fight against COVID. These funds will be distributed to organizations to support local communications efforts and to research attitudes about the vaccines.

Facebook announced 2nd quarter 2021 profits of $12.4 BILLION — profits made in part selling ads that have perpetuated the spread of the mis/dis information about COVID, the vaccine, and so much more.

There is an obvious disconnect here. Or should we call it the elephant in the room.

There are ways you and Mark can fix this, however.

First, create a PSA where you, as both a mother and pediatrician, explain to parents and the public the danger of the Delta variant to our children, the safety of the vaccine, and the effectiveness of masks. It is especially important to pro-actively give the millions of parents of 5 to 11-year-olds now eligible for the vaccine confidence in its safety.

Second, It is time for Facebook to be proactive not reactive in addressing the Infodemic of mis/dis information by using its formidable advertising platform to target this message to parents of school age children and vaccine hesitant Americans. Start with spending the equivalent of $100 million in ad revenues to reach Americans now. A flea bomb is always more effective than picking out fleas from the dog. Facebook cleaning up millions of. posts of mis/dis information is not as powerful as proactively making millions of Americans knowledgable about COVID and the vaccine.

Third, Facebook and Chan-Zuckerberg can recruit doctors from across America to post similar messages on their Facebook pages. Facebook would boost those posts to the maximum level free of charge.

Fourth, Facebook can open and staff a hotline to answer questions about mis/dis information related to the virus. A knowledgeable human speaking with frightened and confused parents is more powerful than just an ad or a post.

Time is rapidly running out.

Physicians across the country report contending with their patients over the misinformation they read or watched on Facebook. School boards are under attack by parents and agitators whose fear has been stoked by the same mis/dis information. Millions of kids are testing positive. And how long will it be before yet another variant emerges among the unvaccinated?

You have a unique voice. We know Facebook could have your PSA up in running by tomorrow.

Dr. Chan, you are the only one who can make a difference in just 24 hours. Please don’t delay. America — “our whole community ” — is waiting for you to act.

Tom Cosgrove is the Founder of New Voice Strategies (www.newvoicestrategies.com) a Boulder, Colorado non-profit that creates, incubates and launches projects to heal divides, restore compassion and strengthen self-government. As part of that mission in 2020 NVS produced the Public Television Documentary — Divided We Fall: Unity Without Tragedy www.dividedwefalltv.org.

It was 1984. We came to Iowa from all corners of the nation. Inspired to join the campaign of someone we believed would make a difference. Who championed the causes and issues we championed: civil rights, the labor movement, women’s rights, the environment.

We came for Walter Mondale, an old-school Democrat whose life in public service was dedicated to those causes. We shared his values and commitment to fight for economic justice. We believed, as he believed, that government could be a force for good.

Some of us came on the first flight, others later on multistate buses, still others made the trip in their own vehicles — picking passengers on their way, all agreeing to come to Iowa to work for Mondale for a whopping $15 a day and the promise of a stranger’s floor to sleep on.

But before we could be assigned to any role, or sent to one of Iowa’s 99 counties to live and work 24/7 until the Iowa caucuses were held, we had to answer a somewhat crazy question.

Q: “What is the difference between the eggs and the bacon on a breakfast plate?”

A: By supplying some eggs the chicken was involved in the breakfast. But the hog was fully committed.

Did we come to Iowa to be involved in a presidential campaign, or did we come because we were committed to Walter Mondale?

Q: “So are you a chicken or a hog?”

We became The Hogs. We were not alone. By the end of the campaign 100s of staff members from across the country were committed, self-identified “Mondale Hogs.”

As Hogs we knew that his campaign was a pivotal moment in our lives. That the experiences we shared, the lessons we learned and the lives we changed were ever lasting.

That is why our commitment to WFM and to each other has lasted over the past four decades.

Walter Mondale’s last act on this earth was to send us a message. — “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.”

This collaborative piece — 35 individual stories or reflections — is our answer to Mondale’s last message:

Susie Hayes Gordon

Scheduling and Advance (worked in the DC office, did some advance in San Fran for the Convention and in MN. Canvassed in the thrashing rain in NH)

1984 changed my life by teaching me about:

the holy vocation of public service;

the mechanics, art, communications and rough and tumble of politics;

the importance of trust as the foundation of all we do;

the thrill of the adrenalin rush of working hard as a team at something that matters.

the reality that we can recover from defeat

the bonds that would be formed discovering and becoming life-long friends with smart, funny, quality human beings who came together all because of the values, humanity and vision of WFM. No matter how much time passes from each encounter, when we reconnect it is easy, joyful, comfortable, hilarious, fascinating. These people are interesting, interested in the world, hungry to always work on what matters. Opportunities that came after the campaign stemmed from those relationships and still do.

WFM is someone I grew to know via my roots in MN. He was grounded, honest, funny, driven to change the world for the better, to help those who needed a boost. He remained true to that his whole life. He never confused his titles with who he was before he had them. That is the proof of integrity. What I did not realize until working on the campaign was how gracious he was to everyone around him — from the person with the most humble job to the person with the most power. The night he conceded the election, he showed no self pity and instead focused all his efforts thanking and encouraging everyone who worked on the campaign — and especially the young staffers — not to give up hope, to keep fighting the good fight because we were the future, never to give up. We loved him. He loved us. I will miss him.

His life and impact on the world is forever. His life was a blessing. God bless WFM and his dear family and all who loved him.

Katherine Rogers, New Hampshire State Representative

Worked field and scheduling, Deputy Director in New Hampshire, also working in Illinois, New Mexico, Ohio, New Jersey, and as a delegate tracker and served in Ohio in General election

It was Christmas Eve 1982 And the phone rang in my house in NH. I answered to hear former Vice President Walter Mondale’s voice on the other end inquiring if I was having a good holiday. After exchanging pleasantries Mondale got down to business and said he needed me. He told me that I was the one person he couldn’t win New Hampshire without — I felt flattered and thrilled at the same time and immediately agreed to serve on his team in the upcoming primary.

The NH primary was a series of up and down moments but Mondale always stayed upbeat and positive — he always spoke about the working men and women who were jobless and homeless, he always had time to say hello for the single Mom who wasn’t sure how she would pay her rent or the guy who had just got another pink slip.

I remember we had a crew of high school kids who volunteered all the time in the main office, they weren’t the top of the class rich kids you might have expected instead they were the kids that were always getting into trouble and skipped school a lot, etc. But they loved Fritz Mondale. We scheduled a stop at their High School and when we arrived the VP was escorted into the auditorium by these kids and even mentioned their names in his speech — you can only imagine how proud they all were. Walter Mondale took the time to recognize their worth, something no one had done before that changed many of their lives. Walter Mondale cared about people not just those that were rich and in the higher echelons of society but ALL the people —that is what made both him and his campaign so different. THAT is why his campaign has lived on all these years —we all truly cared.

Gale Kaufman

Affordable housing development and consulting

A recent college grad, I was an early Hog recruit. I left the DC office after 2 weeks for the field, and never turned back. From the Florida straw poll, I went to Maine, where I was inducted as a Hog, and then on to too many states to count. I learned to deal with uncertainty — one-way tickets and never knowing where I would spend the night. I learned to be resourceful — setting up field offices around the country and running local campaign operations on a shoestring. And I made deep connections with supporters and staff, several of whom are life-long friends. It was Mondale’s commitment to policies centering fairness, together with my experiences on the campaign embedded in numerous cities and states, that led me to pursue a now 30+ year career in affordable housing.

A Newsweek article during the campaign summed up Mondale’s values for his campaign as “principles, policy and character”. Mondale connected deeply with the people he met. When his schedule allowed (and even when it did not), he was often the last to leave the room — and then would stop to chat with a local reporter on the sidewalk. His character made our work much easier and allowed us to stay issue-focused as we engaged supporters. And his legacy as a self-described “public servant” is one of unparalleled humanity and decency.

In the “me decade” of the 1980s, it was not easy to find a cohort of peers who cared passionately enough to devote a 24/7 year-and-a-half of their lives to make change. These were my people. I was so fortunate to have latched onto this activist, creative, keenly intelligent, compassionate, committed group. Working on the Mondale campaign was a highlight of my life.

Jenifer Collins Westphal

Founder/CEO/Executive Producer

Wavelength

In the Spring of 1983, I was attending Clarke College (now called Clarke University) in Dubuque, Iowa. I had always worked on local campaigns in my spare time, and as a result, the college asked if I would host an event for Joan Mondale. Joan was traveling to many Iowa colleges taking about an internship program for those interested in working, for college credit, on the Mondale for President Campaign. I said I wasn’t interested but would plan an event.

Meeting Joan Mondale that day changed my life. Not only did I end up with an internship, I left college to become a Mondale Hog, sent to more than 12 states through the course of the primaries, helping to organize GOTV and campaign events for Teddy Mondale all along the way. I landed in Philadelphia for the Pennsylvania Primary, fell in love with Philly, married my husband and raised my family in Philly all because of the Mondale campaign.

Today, I run a small film company, and when people ask me how I learned to produce, I tell them about my experiences organizing Fritz Blitzes, getting precincts organized to get out the vote, and staging campaign events for the Mondale campaign. I was an Iowa Hog working under Joe Trippi, Pat Eltman, Tom Cosgrove and the entire Iowa field team. We were Mondale Hogs — fully committed and proud of it.

Working for the Mondale family changed my life — and I remain always eternally grateful for the day I met Joan Mondale in Dubuque, Iowa.

John Cacciatore

I am a native Iowan Hog. There are a few of us. I was fortunate to work for Walter Mondale and his presidential campaign in Iowa in 1983/84. That experience set me on my career journey in politics — work for people and causes I believe in that will improve the lives of people in our state, country and planet.

My experience in the Mondale campaign allowed me the opportunity to work for Tom Harkin’s first campaign for the US Senate and was the foundation for my opportunity to serve Tom Vilsack as his Campaign Manager in his election as Governor in 1998 — Iowa’s first Democratic Governor in 30 years — and serve Gov. Vilsack as his Policy Director and Chief of Staff.

WFM showed me that good politicians act on what they believe in. He set the bar appropriately high and demonstrated it once again later in his life when he stepped up to try and succeed Paul Wellstone.

I stay in contact with some of my fellow Hogs because we have a strong common bond in WFM and they are good people with good values that are true friends — an example set by Walter Mondale.

Angela Jones, MDiv.

Wellesley MA

The 1984 campaign enabled me to take to the road and directly engage with voters across the U.S. I was absolutely thrilled to share this rich experience with other people who were hard-working, passionate, smart, creative, and fun. We believed in Walter Mondale and in each other. My life blossomed! We created unshakeable bonds from the dedication we gave to electing an inspiring leader. As a young woman growing more deeply in my faith, I was personally grateful to work for a man who had a strong faith foundation as well. Moreover, Mondale resonated meaningfully with me because he quietly demonstrated his faith from his works. He cared that people were treated fairly, were given opportunities, and lived a quality life. I believe in character, integrity, and generosity in political leaders, like Walter Mondale. I stay in touch with my fellow Hogs because we shared a unique experience that time can not disintegrate and like any close family, we stay in touch.

Wanda “Woo” Williams

The Mondale Campaign was my second job out of college. I was an intern in the NYS Legislature and was hired after my internship. My boss had served as the NYS Co Chair of the Carter Campaign. He was involved in finding staffers for Mondale’s run for President in early 1983. So when the session was over in June of 1983 I left my only job and went to Portland, Maine to work as an organizer for Walter Mondale in the Maine Strawpoll. I was 21, did not have a car or a license, had never been to Maine but I was excited to work for Walter Mondale. The fellow Minnesotean of my childhood hero Hubert Haratio Humphrey who I had voted for in my grade school election. Once I arrived in Portland I was picked up by Martin Davis whom we all fondly came to know as the Tuna. We went to the office in Monument Square so I could get my assignment and car and be deployed to my work location. Because I had no license I was assigned to the Peninsula of Portland, briefed, handed my book of delegates who needed to be persuaded to support Mondale and introduced to my two LEAD organizers Jeff Braukman and Trish …..and our “big” boss Joe Trippi. Three days after my arrival I met Joan Mondale and Julie Gibson at an event at the Barridoff Gallery. Julie became my best friend, roommate and person who taught me how to drive on the back roads of Maine. We were paid $15 a day. Enough to secure our daily dinner of two 2 pound lobsters, rice pilaf and a salad from John Martin’s Lobster House around the corner from the office. Money wasn’t important, you never had the time to spend it. You worked from sun up to sun down and gladly repeated the same the next day. We thrived on exhaustion, it fueled our soul.

All of us Mondalians shared a very particular mission to get Walter Mondale enough wins so he could secure the Democratic nomination and win the Presidency. So we went from state to state like paratroopers dropping in to save the day. We delighted in our mission and the once in a lifetime experiences we racked up. Most valuable being the interaction with the family Fritz, Joan, Teddy, Eleanor and William. Who we all got to know, see regularly and campaigned with side by side very often. We cherished those moments not only because they were an extraordinary family but because they made us a part of their family and we genuinely knew that they cared for us, the sacrifices we made and the commitment we shared to make life better for those most in need. The Mondale campaign was like no other because we really wanted to win, (at one point the campaign had no money- we didn’t care we spent our own money — putting rental cars and hotels on our credit cards) we were on a mission that would not be disrupted. This campaign was different because we made lifelong friendships, we truly loved our candidate and each other and we supported and respected each other. All ignited by a man who wouldn’t be President but will forever be our shining example of real true Leadership.

Julie Gibson, COO

GPS Impact

June, 1983, just before my 24th birthday, I received a call from Matt McWilliams with Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign. This call changed my life.

Matt asked if I’d be interested in joining Walter Mondale’s national campaign staff as a field organizer. Without hesitation, my answer was YES! He wanted to know if I was good with making $15 a day — YES, no problem! He said the campaign would find me a place to live and a car to drive — EXCELLENT, what more could I ask for!

Working in Maine on the straw poll was where I came to know what it meant to be a Mondalian, to be part of the family, and a cause that was bigger than all of us. We worked hard and had fun. It was not a job. It was what we were there to do. We learned about hard counts and what it took to build support, one delegate at a time, one supporter steering card at a time. I learned early on that the Mondale’s — starting with WFM — cared deeply about the campaign team, especially the field organizers on the ground, working for $15 a day.

We quickly learned that “field” could be the difference in winning or losing a campaign. Many of us cut our teeth on the Mondale campaign in Maine and Iowa, and campaigned all the way until November, in many other battlegrounds in too many states to count. We knew what it meant to be committed. As a Mondale Hog, we wore our Hog pin as a badge of honor. It remains one of my most prized possessions to this day and is a testament to one of the best experiences of my life. I treasure the lifelong friendships we shared as Mondale Hogs, which remain as strong today as they were almost 40 years ago. My respect, loyalty and admiration for WFM, Joan, Teddy, Eleanor and William is steadfast.

Hilary Gerson Phillips

Schedule & Advance

Arlington, VA

Not only did 1984 change my life, but thanks to Curt Wiley (I met him at my first job out of college in Les Aspin’s DC office), I was hired by Ann Stock to work on the PAC (I think that was 1982). I worked in Scheduling & Advance — the office was located at Mr. Mondale’s law firm — Winston & Strawn — (there were very few of us at the time — Ann, Mike Berman, Jim Johnson, Becky McGowan, Curt, Maxine Isaacs).

I wanted to work for Walter Mondale because I knew he was a great man — not just because of his many years of service, but I knew Ted from John Eaton Elementary School, and Joan was a volunteer in the school library with my mom — we all lived in Cleveland Park (and went to school with Roger Goodell).

I learned invaluable organizational skills which I use to this day. I can recognize virtually every area code in the US — thanks to all of the trips that I scheduled. I know every airport in the U.S. as well. I was engaged & married during the campaign (unbelievable that I got time off for a 3 day honeymoon — planned during a small window of downtime) — Joan attended my wedding, Becky McGowan introduced me to Judge Abner Mikva who presided over the wedding and even included a request from my father to include a Jewish prayer for the non-denominational wedding.

My career was launched thanks to Walter Mondale. One amazing opportunity was working for the Iran Contra hearings (working on the Senate side). I also worked with Eliot Cutler, Jim Margolis, Maxine Isaacs, and many others following the campaign.

And of course, I made many, many friends — who I keep in touch with to this day — and for that I am very grateful.

A few, of many, fond memories — coming into the office in the first week of work, lying on a couch recovering from a concussion I received in a softball game the night before — did not go home; grilled cheese & tomato sandwiches at the hole in the wall carry out place next to the campaign headquarters on Wisconsin Ave., getting to travel to New Hampshire to work in the primaries, going to SF (my birthplace) for the convention. Remember the Mondale cookbook? I still have it.

Will Robinson

83–84 Field Staff (Hog)

My Walter Mondale experience began in 1975 with Vice President Hubert Humphrey. I was a Summer Intern in my Congressman’s DC office. Humphrey had returned to the Senate where he paid special attention to Interns and “you young folk.” After he spoke at an Intern event he took questions and stayed for another 45 minutes having one on one conversations. When it was my turn, Humphrey told me that I needed to get to know Walter Mondale. Humphrey said that he had known Mondale since “Fritz” was a “starving student”. He said that he and Mondale would sit in his kitchen talking politics while Muriel would put “plate after plate” of waffles in front of them. I got the sense that Mondale was doing most of the eating. Humphrey spoke of Mondale with the pride of a father, not just a mentor.

My chance to really get to know Walter Mondale was a few years later. In 1983 I was working as an organizer in Iowa for AFSCME. Mondale’s campaign was trying to recruit me, so I was asked to drive him to the Cedar Rapids airport after an event. It ended up being just the two of us in the car. I started, “I met a friend of yours — he said you loved waffles…“ That’s as far as I got. “When did YOU talk to Hubert?” He then went on a 5 minutes guided visualization of Muriel Humphrey’s waffles. The stories of his and Humphrey’s early career went on for most of the ride. At the end I said, “he really loved you didn’t he?” Mondale just got quiet and said, “He had a good heart.”

As we drove past rows of corn a pheasant flew out over the road. I was told “Stop! Let’s flush them out!” As we walked through the corn rousting pheasants we talked about family and hunting (and how as a kid he would sneak into Iowa to get a head start.)

At the end of that day I felt we had a connection. If you talk to Mondale staff and colleagues — connection, caring, and family are the words you hear about Walter Mondale. If you worked for Walter Mondale you were family — through victory and defeat. If you ask any ‘84 staff most would say they’d do it again — even if we would have lost 50 states!

(I still have the stove top waffle iron I bought after the ‘84 campaign.)

Joe Trippi

Fritz gave me some last good years with my dad. And he attracted The most talented and dedicated group of people I ever worked with. We were family, brothers and sisters Fritz drew to the cause of making a difference. The Hogs.

The story of these gloves will tell you the kind of man Fritz Mondale was and why he meant so much to me. https://twitter.com/joetrippi/status/1384533738441355264?s=21

Karen Skelton

Senior Advisor

U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm

I was a nomad in 1983, having moved to Boston after graduating from UCLA with $200 and no job. And then the chain reaction — Lenny Stern, David Bunis, Tom Cosgrove — a phone call asking if i wanted to work in the Iowa caucuses, a one way plane ticket, a pair of rental car keys thrown across a desk, a map, some names on a paper, a white county, the Pizza Hut parking lot in Osceola I slept in for days, the maxed out Chevron credit card. I traveled the country as a hog with young, idealistic, sometimes crazy, always committed friends who became family, meeting people like Lefty Palm, Providence Benedict, and Jeannie Shaheen.

I learned almost everything I needed on the Mondale campaign: Have fun and work hard. Don’t trust numbers that end in 0 or 5. Respect everyone equally. Eat at events because you might not get food for a while. Have your friends’ backs and they will have yours. Be a team player. There are times when our government is good and needed, and can do magnificent things to make our country and our families stronger. These lessons came from the top down — WFM, Joan, Teddy, Eleanor and William. They each showed genuine respect to everyone they met, including this scrappy hog. It will be hard to match the gratefulness and integrity of this iconic political Minnestoan family.

Philip Dufour

President & Creative Director

The Dufour Collaborative

In December 1983, having just graduated from LSU, I convinced my dad to pay for a plane ticket to Des Moines, Iowa to work on the Mondale campaign. I had been offered a position to be a field organizer. My dad asked me what that meant, and I told him I didn’t really know, but was convinced it would be the best experience of my life. Besides, it would pay $15 a day! It was only my third time on an airplane. Once I landed, I went directly to campaign headquarters to meet with Tom Cosgrove and Joe Trippi. It was there I got my assignment to drive (in the snow no less — remember I am a Louisiana kid) to Mason City where I spent the next six weeks sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a supporter’s home (not that I got much sleep).

It did turn out to be one of the best experiences of my life and provided me with a political education I could never have paid for. I was honored to become a member of the Hogs and went on to New Hampshire, Maine, Mass., Maryland, Pennsylvania and San Francisco for my first National Convention, before landing in the D.C. office. I forged many lifelong friendships — turns out sometimes losing a race can bring you closer. I never imagined that a little more than ten years later I would be Social Secretary to Al and Tipper Gore and manage the Vice President’s Residence where the Mondales were the first Second Family to live. This photo was taken in 1997 at the Residence where I was able to personally thank Joan Mondale for starting me on a journey that brought me to that exact moment. Just a kid from Alexandria, LA. Rest in Peace Fritz, and thank you for changing the trajectory of my life.

Bennett Freeman

The day after his death I wrote tribute (see link below) to Fritz Mondale as a man of uncommon decency and integrity, who embodied our common American values of social, racial and economic justice to which we still aspire.

I was so proud to have started my career with him, initially as a speechwriter in February 1982 and eventually as a field organizer in the Maine straw poll in September 1983; the Iowa caucuses in January-February 1984; brief stints in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri; month-plus roles in Wisconsin and Ohio; then three months as the delegate tracker for New York through the convention in San Francisco. From September, I travelled with Ted Mondale to over 25 states, ending the final weekend in Minnesota, our final battleground state. I wouldn’t have missed a day of those (three months short of) three years.

We were committed enough to defeating Reagan and electing Mondale not to think about the steep odds against winning. We were young enough not to worry about what would come next for us in our careers and lives. So we were all in together — the essence of being Hogs — and forever bonded through our shared experience and enduring friendships. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/walter-mondale-democratic-partisan-american-patriot-bennett-freeman/

Gina Glantz

Much has been written about Walter Mondale and all he meant to history and my kind of politics. I want to tell two — of what I am sure are numerous — stories of his attention to those of us who were in his unbelievably busy, intense orbit during the 1984 Presidential campaign.

My father was convinced that what ailed my mother at the time could only be fixed by a visit to the Mayo Clinic, not a place easily accessible. It took me a while to work up my courage to ask the VP if he could refer me to someone. He said he hadn’t been in touch with folks in quite awhile. Not long after he told me he called a retired nurse friend and it turned out that she was going to a Mayo picnic that very day and would try to make a connection. Within weeks my mother was at the Mayo Clinic with someone at intake asking her, “how do you know our Fritz?” Mondale never failed to ask me about my mother as did Joan when I saw her at later events. To think he mentioned it to Joan!

At some point I mentioned to Mondale that I was collecting hats and t-shirts for my kids. Virtually every time I was at an event with him, he would ask me to stop by his hotel room where I would find a stack of t-shirts and hats he had been carrying around in his luggage. Many of them were union and state party caucus and issue organization classics. They are packed away in storage somewhere, however I can report that Samantha and Peter proudly adorned the shirts despite their being three, four, or five times larger than the kids’ sizes.

His spirit, his values, his kindness will be sorely missed.

John Austin

Former President Michigan State Board of Education, Nonresident

Senior Fellow Brookings Institution

Walter Mondale and working on the campaign inspired and cemented my passion for politics and a life of service. I won’t forget that while he did not know a lot of us worker bees, field and advance-man (which I was) we all were flown to Minnesota on election night. He told us not to be discouraged, but to go on and make a life of making a difference. Which so many of us did. I made lifelong friendships. I met my wife. But most importantly I was shown an example that one could be a terrifically effective political leader, and be honest, a person of integrity, and most importantly a decent and attentive human being to everyone around you. I only worked for people that I could respect similarly, and I’ve tried to live in the same mold. Thanks, Fritz.

Lenny Stern

Co-founder, SS+K, an integrated creative marketing communications company focused on helping businesses, brands, and mission based organizations create meaningful change.

I joined the Mondale campaign right out of college and drove to Maine to help Mondale organize for the Maine Straw poll. There I met Joe Trippi, Mike and Sally Ford, Pat Eltman, and so many other soon to be Hogs. As a young, green organizer, I was desperately trying to recruit every York county delegate any way I could, taking every yes, no or maybe to heart. One night I was finishing my work frustrated about not yet securing this one important delegate and Mondale who was visiting that night came over to me and asked me to take a walk. We walked on the beach near Biddeford pool and he put his arm around me with a cigar in his mouth and scotch in his hand and he thanked me for all my hard work and assured me it would all pay off and not to let one day or one delegate get me down. I was 20 and he was the former Vice President of the United States of America! This man was one in a million. Soon thereafter I was lucky enough to join a small group of original hogs and left for Iowa. For four plus months we Fritz blitzed, ran phone banks, organized events and GOTV and ultimately delivered on caucus night. But, more than anything Iowa, Mondale the man, the hogs, the campaign and all the people he brought together changed my life. This experience introduced me to so many people I loved then and love to this day, and Mondale and the values he inspired from all involved changed my life. He and this campaign taught me about integrity, character, decency, empathy, love, doing good for others, commitment, togetherness and family.

Will Fay

“America isn’t supposed to be a jungle where only the fittest survive, America is supposed to be like a family.” It was an honor to work for the man who believed that. The political victories came later, as they always do. But that campaign seared into our souls what the fight was and is all about. True to the man, the Mondale campaign was like a family too. His children — Eleanor, Ted, William — were not just “accessible.” They were in the trenches with the rest of the Hogs. A different time. But what we learned was timeless.

Tom Sheridan

Founder and President of The Sheridan Group, Washington DC

It was 1983 and I was finishing up my Masters Degree in Social Work. My final thesis project was creating a delegate recruitment and endorsement process for the National Association of Social Workers. In a meeting with Paul Tully one afternoon about the Mondale campaign he inquired what my plan was for work after graduation. I said I was waiting for the Peace Corps to accept me for a position in Africa or Central America. In true “Tully fashion”, he simply said, “Why would you go work there if you can save America from Ronald Reagan having a second term?”. Good question! Two days later I was talking with Michael Ford and Sally Schwartz, offered the standard $15 a day and told me I’d depart for Iowa as soon as operations were up and running. A two day drive across ½ of America and we arrived in DesMoines to meet the Trippi/Cosgrove cabal. A few hours later I got my assignment — Jones County — and the omnius direction that Trippi had run Jones County in 1980, knew it like the back of his hand and wouldn’t accept anything less then his 60+% win (Mondale won 72%). I knew then I was either going to thrive or die in Iowa. Clearly I went on to be a charter “Hog” and proud of that distinction and the group that shares the title every day — 35 years later! The Mondale campaign changed my life in a fundamental way — it embedded a commitment to political change, reinforced a sense of integrity in my work and connected me to a community of people who I still treasure as friends today. At the center of that was the man himself — WFM “Fritz” Mondale. He led by example — kind, honest, smart, humble, loyal and tenacious. When I think of him then, and now, it is the pure integrity of his life and work. He taught me that winning in politics is important but how you lose sometimes says more about your soul and character. In victories and loses he remained true to himself and to us as the perfect example of the “servant leader”. The “Hogs” are to me what perhaps fraternities or platoon comrades are to others — a community bonded by shared experience that stands the test of time and remains a touchstone for all that happens next in life. To see that pin, and wear it on occasion, is a source of great pride and joy. I believe we all leave a legacy — Fritz Mondale left his legacy in that extraordinary group we call “The Hogs”! Rest in Peace.

Elizabeth Evans

“Tracker Backer”

The hogs rescued/adopted me from my unpaid college summer internship working at Mondale for President headquarters. Having volunteered in Ann Arbor MI during the Michigan caucus (yep, caucus not primary) and hosted a few field staffers (Lenny Stern and ….) at our decrepit college house, I was thrilled to snag a summer internship for the most consequential Presidential campaign in history, as seen from my 19 year old eyes.

After a week of literally staring at a rotary dial telephone and taking messages for “Mr. Mondale” from people all across the United States with wise counsel for the candidate, I was, um, a little less sure of the importance of this election.

Debbie Katz and the delegate tracking team rescued me, and the following day I became part of the team cajoling delegates to support Mondale. I “backed” Bennett Freeman and Katie Tucker as they wrangled the New York, Iowa and Minnesota delegates. Bennett had to be the most sophisticated person I had ever met & I think of him every time I drink a Pimms Cup. I remain proud of my leg work making surprise visits to kitchens in Chinatown restaurants, as directed by Bennett, for the research for our San Francisco dining guide provided to the NY delegates.

I learned what public service means from the people I met on the campaign. Smart, hard working, clever and tenacious, folks who remain dear friends and role models — Nikki Heidepriem, Tom Sheridan, Steve Elmendorf (who gave me a paid gig during the general election in Michigan and arranged for me to be in the motorcade with Fritz for the big rally in Ann Arbor), Ellen Globokar (the OG BossLady), Julie Gibson, Wanda Williams, Phillip DuFour, Tom Cosgrove and more. I learned so much more than I would have in any class at UofM and I am endlessly impressed by your commitment to public service and your smarts. And without a doubt, Fritz & Joan Mondale inspired that dedication to something bigger than ourselves. I am grateful for their years and years of public service.

Tommy Wells

Former DC Councilmember

DC Director for the Department of Energy and Environment

I joined the campaign in DC prior to the Iowa Caucuses. Nine of us drove three cars to Des Moines; Tom Sheridan, Jim Thompson, Curtis Pree, myself and five others. There we became 15 dollar a day Hogs. I was sent out to Waverly.

I ended up working 7 contests during which my faith in our country was forged or restored. Having grown up seeing the hypocrisy of Viet Nam, horror of Kent State and the betrayal of Watergate, I did not expect my cynicism to be washed away. And Walter Mondale helped do that. But so did my fellow Hogs.

I met my future wife, Barbara Barchrd, through Jim Thompson, my car buddy. She worked in the front office for Bob Beckel. When I told that to Fritz at an event later in DC, he said,”Well, something good came out of that campaign!”

Ted Fiskevold

Becker County DFL Chair

SD 2 DFL Chair

Member of MN State DFL History Committee

We had no phone-cameras in our pockets back in 1984 for calls, texts, or emails; most had no answering machines. I happened to be at my parents’ home on the Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota when a woman named Debbie Katz called from D.C. in the middle of December of 1983. My retired parents left for California two days later. As nomadical as I was with a move to Nashville planned, Debbie never should have found me. But she did.

I hung up after agreeing to be in Des Moines shortly after New Year’s Day, and sure, I could pick up some people in the Twin Cities. I hauled five people with me in my ’75 Grand Marquis, one of them is now the Commissioner of Agriculture in Minnesota. I lived in Perry, Iowa for six weeks, slept on a couch in my office above a law office in this largest “city” in Dallas County, and found out soon what being “resourceful” truly means.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, my name was written in black marker on a piece of brown construction paper cut like a hog and added to a Hog wall-of-fame in the main HQ in Des Moines.

From Iowa, I went to Boston, NH, VT, Maine, Montana, San Francisco to the National Convention, and on the day after Labor Day, I flew to Philadelphia, PA. Shortly after, I headed out in a rental car to Beaver, Butler, and Lawrence Counties — up above Pittsburgh. And a brief sashay into Ohio. Coast to coast to coast in 10.5 months.

Crisis in campaigns is common, and often cursory. I was just leaving the office in Perry, Iowa one night when I heard the “Tweet-tweet” of one of the two cheap six-buck phones I bought that sounded like a bird when it rang. Lenny Stern was calling about “…we have to call all the Cranston supporters…” or “…need a list of leaning Harts…” or some such crisis.

“I’m going to the movies with my girlfriend,” I said. “I’ll do it in the morning…”

“You have to do it now!”

“And what happens if I don’t?”

“That will be the end of your political career…”

“What?” (Laughing) “Tell me something, Lenny. WTF makes you think I came down here and worked for 15 bucks a day for a political career?” (Still chuckling.)

(Brief pause, which was unusual for Lenny.) “Well-lll, let’s just say you’re gonna do it for WFM.”

Therein is the very essence of what the “Hog” thing was and still is all about. Walter Frederick Mondale and the principles he stood for in his stellar career in politics and public service, and people working for him and/or what he stood for.

Incidentally, since 1984, I have worked full-time on two governors races in MN, worked full-time for the MN DFL Senate Caucus Campaign three different election years, was full-time campaign manager for a congressional race in MT, I’ve been an officer in the MN Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party for over 30 years and served on nearly every statewide committee they have, worked for the State of Montana and the Montana State Senate, worked in a few different union jobs and seven years for the State of Minnesota, attended and covered three more Democratic National Conventions as a freelance writer, and I’m still not “looking for a career in politics.”

Suzy Spilker Ballantyne

I started with the Mondale campaign as a volunteer in Wisconsin. I was finishing up my college degree when the Wisconsin Straw Poll suddenly became important in the Presidential election in early summer in 1983. I had just finished running college campuses for Senator Gaylord Nelson in ‘82. I met and worked with the early campaign team, because I had kept the list of phone bank volunteers. I immediately was filling phone banks for the straw poll. Because it was so early, all the campaign “big wigs” came to Wisconsin. I met and worked with Jim Johnson, Bob Beckel, and the most important influence was Paul Tully who ran the operation. After the straw poll he suggested that I move to Iowa with the campaign. I became the student coordinator in Des Moines, Iowa for 9 months. After Iowa, I went to NH, Maine, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia. I did a 6-week stint at the San Francisco Convention site, and onto Wisconsin for the general election.

The campaign experience set me up for my life’s work. I consider myself a grassroots organizer after the Mondale campaign. I learned what it meant and the value of speaking with voters and listening. People like Will Robinson and Gerard Clark from AFSCME pointed me in the direction of working in the labor movement after the campaign as a way to contribute to the causes of improving the lives of working men and women, while having a stable life. I have to say part of what led me to the labor movement, is that after working with Mondale, few candidates measured up to the inspirational leader that Fritz Mondale was.

The Hogs have stayed as a cohesive group for over 36 years. It is amazing that this past year, the call was put out to help with the Biden Campaign. Under the leadership of Heather Booth and Robin Wright, we organized the “Seasoned Organizers” from the Mondale alumni. Many folks stepped up and sacrificed for the last few months of the campaign. Robin worked 24–7 calling and placing many of us. Some could give hours only at night, while others were able to relocate and go wherever the need was. Paul Cooper went to PA for a month or so. No one got paid, no one had an ego, no one cared about a hierarchy. We figured we had all made our mark in life, we just couldn’t watch what was happening to our country.

It was incredible that after 36 years, it felt the same as if we were on the Mondale campaign yesterday. The bonds that were created in 1983 and 1984 remain strong. We were all committed Hogs whether it was 1983 or whether it was 2020. When people were needed — they stepped up. I’ve never been prouder to be a Hog.

Joe Lockhart

When I was 23, I was hired as a press secretary for his 1984 presidential campaign and got to see a side of him that was different from his public image as the stoic Norwegian. Mondale was a very funny man. He loved a good prank and was downright silly and goofy when he was around his kids.

On the day after his election loss, he gathered the staff together to thank them. He talked about how losing was hard, but all the hard work was not for naught. I remember to this day his next line. “The seeds of every victory are sown in defeat.” He urged all of us to stay at it because the fight was worth it. And many did, populating the campaigns and governments of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

I’d spent nearly the whole campaign puzzling over how to share his real personality on television with the country. We all know now that the stoic Norwegian didn’t sell that well. With about five days to go before the election, he did a joint interview with his wife, Joan. It was magic. She made him laugh, made him say some goofy things and made him show America who he really was. More moments like that should have been shared with the public during the campaign. Perhaps it would have made a big difference in the election’s outcome. But I’m so thankful that I got to see this side of him regularly.

I know he’s happy to be reunited with Joan and his daughter, Eleanor, and at peace knowing he made a real difference in many lives.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/21/opinions/the-walter-mondale-i-knew-lockhart/index.html

Tamera Luzzatto

(in ‘83 and ‘84 Tammy Stanton)

After assisting an environmental policy advisory committee to the campaign, I was hired as the organizer of and liaison to the environmental community under Paul Tully’s political operation and ultimately served the policy shop on the same issues. Having been born in Minnesota with a father who grew up in the state, I had a special familial attachment to our candidate. I was too junior and young to get to know Mondale, although I did staff him on some memorable trips including to the Everglades with Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. While the NH primary didn’t go so well, I will admit that Tully called me in when back from the state to say that Mondale noticed the impressive work of the environmental activists up there — SO my “booby prize” was, to use Tully’s French, to be the liaison to the F_ing peace and arms control groups. And when the final primaries came around, Tully pulled me into the one he decided to run, so was holed up in Livingston, NJ with his splendid “dream team” he corralled to the state that Hart thankfully associated outloud with toxic waste. Like on any campaign, I worked around the clock, and with so many fabulous people, many still good friends. And I remain grateful to having been clueless how badly we’d lose to someone whose damage endures. As for stories, endless fun ones — such as keeping up with surrogate Carl Sagan’s demands for his road trip that included only staying at hotels with dry cleaning services, armed protection at all times, and other doozies I wouldn’t and couldn’t make up.

Jim Farrell

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney

Minneapolis

For me the experience started in Cedar Rapids with the smell of roasting malt permeating the entrance of a bar where Rick Rosenthal, John Sutter and I would watch Ted Mondale play quarters with Heidi Buss and her Coe College sorority sisters. It was the beginning of lifelong relationships with friends sharing a belief that democracy provides an opportunity for collective well-being.

Thank you, Rick R, Mike S, Tom S, Steven P, Ted F, Juile G, Phil D, Paul J, Mitchell L, Mitchell S, Angela J, Mark V, et al for sharing experiences that became the collective voice reminding me to have faith in something greater than myself.

Ted & Bill thank you for sharing your father with the rest of us. How blessed to have the chance to watch him chewing on a cigar talking about Hubert, Orv, Jerry and Warren being smart, decent and motivated. Being told to strive to build the community the founding DFL men and women envisioned decades before taking an oath.

Marty Kaplan

Even though I was — as the origin story puts it — fully committed to WFM, technically I wasn’t a Hog, but I sure benefited from the legendary commitment of the Hogs to the Mondales.

I joined the Vice President’s staff in 1978 as a special assistant and speechwriter, and I was quickly swept up in the ’78 mid-term elections. WFM was the Carter Administration’s most indefatigable campaigner for Democratic candidates; for months, if there were days we weren’t on the plane, I don’t remember them. That’s when I first encountered the cadre of advanced men and women and field staff all across the country who gave their all, and then some, for progressive values and policies, and it was clear they’d walk on fire for Fritz if that’s what it took. From my blurry pov, as I adapted his stump speech for local events, sometimes in four media markets a day, there was no finer source for local lore, for jokes, for high school mascot names, for minefield-walking tips, and there was no better sight for sore eyes at the end of an endless day as we stumbled down the stairs of Air Force II, than what I guess you might call an ancestral Hog.

By the 1980 primaries, I had become WFM’s chief speechwriter, and — in the middle of the Iran hostage crisis, which kept President Carter at the White House — it was the next generation of pre-Hogs that kept us going as we slogged from state to state. The Golden Age of Hogs, of course — the ‘84 campaign — actually began in early ‘83. The fact that we decisively won the Iowa caucuses was directly attributable to Mondale’s boots — hooves? — on the Hawkeye ground. Fighting Fritz could never have come back from the political dead after New Hampshire, and he could never have made it to the nomination in San Francisco, without the Hog muscle and Hog passion that powered us through primary after primary. And then, of course, there was the general. To this day, if I should happen to see a Hog, a look passes between us that says, Yes, we were together there, in the trenches, fighting against all odds for a man — and a woman! — and a cause we believed in.

Saying this now risks sentimentality, I know, or maybe it’s just delusional, but still: There was a kind of nobility to our shared experience of the ’84 defeat. Even so, it’s one of life’s cruelties that our managing to endure that loss back in the day turns out to be no softening the blow, no preparation at all, for the loss that rips us again today.

Reta Jo Lewis

Esq., National Trip Director and Lead Advance, ‘83, ‘84

I first met Vice President Mondale in 1983, when he came to support and campaign for Congressman Harold Washington, who went on to become the first Black Mayor for the City of Chicago. After a brief stint on the Hill, I joined Mondale’s presidential campaign as a Lead Advance and led my first presidential campaign trip to Birmingham. After numerous campaign trips across the country, I was asked by the late Jim Johnson, Mondale’s former Campaign Chair, to join Mondale’s traveling staff as National Trip Director — the first Black woman to hold that position in a major party candidate’s campaign. Working with Mondale every single day for months, I was able to see what a gracious and grateful leader he was as he interacted with voters across the country. His style of leadership had a profound impact on me — I saw how hard he fought for the rights of everyday Americans, Black Americans, minorities and people of color. Mondale inspired me to go to law school and spurred my career in presidential politics for years to come.

Through the many long hours, days and nights working on his team, witnessing Mondale up close, he never lost his will to help everyday Americans and to talk with them about the plans he had to better their lives. After he selected Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as the first female Vice Presidential running mate, one came to realize that Mondale was a man who was ahead of his time in making a decision that would only come to fruition this past election by President Biden. And to see his grace and humility continue even after he did not win the presidency speaks volumes to the Statesman that he became. Working with Mondale, I learned the true meaning of how to press on through the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

I formed a bond with people who shared a commonality of values and were committed to Mondale’s mission. Those early ties formed on Mondale’s team have spawned decades-long relationships.

Elisabeth Shapero

I am mostly at a loss for words, and as many times as I process my years on the Campaign in order to write something concise, I just cannot. Suffice to say very early in the summer of 1983, I was plucked from the Saul D. Alinsky Foundation, and sent to Maine, possibly to live on nuts and berrys and make the world safe for democracy.

I met, worked with, and learned from some of the fiercest, most devoted, and yes, most committed ride-or-die humans ever.

The warriors with heart, and real fire in our bellies, like WFM. We all carry those times with us, and will continue to do him proud.

Gilberto Ocañas

Senior Advisor at Dentons law firm

• How did 1984 change your life?

Being a Mexican American from Texas, we lived in an insular world not by choice but because Anglos were viewed as a minority with no power. I had the pleasure of meeting the late great leader Willie Velasquez founder of Southwest voter registration Project when I was in Houston just finishing up school at U Of H. He struck something in me that doing good for our community regardless of how people treated us was the way to empowerment.

I went into the 1984 campaign looking for more experience to be better at what I did for my community. Landing in Iowa in the winter was more than unusual for a Tejano but I could see people working extremely hard. I knew of Walter Mondale’s dedication and caring by working to help those in need in Minnesota and admired him greatly.

The most important change was that I realized that working with others not from your background was what I needed to experience. Coming from a family of twelve and growing up with no running water I developed a bond with my family. I knew I had found my political family as I became part of the Hog family that was as dedicated to working hard for WFM as he was working hard for our country. I have learned that collaborating and encouraging collaboration is the key to our fighting for our democracy and is part of Walter Mondale’s legacy.

* What did WFM mean to you then, and today as you reflect on his life?

I found my affirmation that my calling is to emulate leaders such as Walter Mondale in my own way. Walter Mondale’s approach to family and politics is of decency and respect for all people. It’s an achievable ideal if we remain true to the cause of serving others. Now my goal is to help develop leaders like my heroes such as Walter Mondale and Willie Velasquez.

* Why have you stayed connected to your fellow Hogs?

Hogs are Mi Familia.

I know that each day my fellow Hogs are getting up early to work hard to do the best for our community and country. Not only do they work hard but they are doing it focused on being an example to others. I know that Hogs’ legacy and WFM will never stop as it will spread that message of true Hog commitment. I believe we do that with a purpose and love of our country.

Hog forever.

Andy Meyers

CEO HealthDay

While I too am not technically a “Hog” having been responsible for New Hampshire above the White Mountains for the ‘84 primary, seemed to always get me a pass-in with the Hogs. (This was the one region in NH that went for Mondale). I never imagined as a 21 year old field organizer in Berlin, NH that I would one day become Mondale’s “Tokyo Flack” as he so politely referred to me when he became Ambassador to Japan.

Japan was clearly something new for Mondale and while he used to cringe at the formality of the official ceremonies, in his free time as a lover of history, used to ask that on weekends I take him on historic walking tours of Tokyo.

In true advance fashion, I would carefully prepare the route each week, but his favorite — which he would always ask me to repeat when he had visitors from out of town — was my old neighborhood, the Nezu-Sendagi district.

At the end of this walk was a Taiyaki sweets shop which has been around for over 100 years which at the time was run by a guy who though partially disabled would swing around his cast iron baking molds like they were toothpicks, upon hearing this guy emphatically barking out “Get Your Taiyaki.” Mondale fell for this guy at first site. The energy, the vitality, the focus: Mondale had finally found his true essence of Japan.

And when it came time to leave Japan, and there was the Official Reception at the stately Ambassadors’ Residence in Toranomon, along with the Prime Minister Hashimoto, and the full diplomatic corps, Mondale insisted that the guy from the Taiyaki Shop was there.

He was the first one at the door, and the last one to leave, and the one I think Mondale was happiest to see.

Verlee Prybyloski

Former important corporate somebody, now publisher and editor of Blue Hare Magazine

Like so many others here I was drawn to work for Walter Mondale because of his decency and integrity and sense of common purpose. I drove my rental car from St. Paul to Des Moines in a blizzard (always keep a candle in a can and a candy bar in case you’re stranded) only to turn around and head back up the highway to the bucolic urban oasis of Mason City, a stone’s throw from the Minnesota border. With my team of newly minted Hogs we covered every inch of that frozen northern wasteland (I say this with love) with a charm offensive that helped deliver Mondale’s Iowa Caucus win. A Minnesota TV crew was sent to cover the results from our headquarters, with live coverage at 11 (or 10) p.m. to feature staff celebrating the win. With my trusty aide Philip Dufour by my side we prepared to pop a Champagne bottle at the top of the news. But just as the anchor was about to turn to us the cork flew out of the bottle, hit the fluorescent light over our heads, and shards of glass rained down on us and filled our champagne glasses like miniature deranged ice sculptures. Followed immediately by “Live from Mason City…”

Philip went on to hobnob with Washington’s finest and create a world-class events company. I moved to Brooklyn. Several years later I received a letter from Dick Clark Productions asking permission to air the Iowa/champagne/glass segment on TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes. And that, I think, says everything.

Rod Halvorson

The announcement of the death of Walter Mondale was a horrible day in a horrible year. I was very sad about losing one of my two favorite bosses, political heroes, mentors, and friends. Fritz was one of the most honorable and kindest souls I have ever met in my 54 years in politics.

As a Minnesotan, I had a chance to meet Walter Mondale in the early days of his political career. I was a high school senior in 1966 when he had his first race to represent Minnesota in the United States Senate and I was just gaining an interest in politics. By 1972, he was running for reelection, but I had graduated from college and moved to Iowa to originally run the Congressional campaign of Berkley Bedell. My respect and appreciation for Mondale continued to grow over the years that followed as he continued to return to Iowa very often and I took every opportunity to say hello and remind him of my Minnesota roots.

I was extremely happy that my first choice for President in 1976, Jimmy Carter, chose Mondale to be his Vice President. During my campaigns for the Iowa House of Representatives in 1976 and 1978, Mondale helped me out. When 1980 rolled around, I feared our party had divided to the point of losing. I was elected as a delegate to the 1980 national convention and I entered a quixotic effort to draft Mondale as a compromise candidate for President in the hope of saving the 80 election.

After the 1982 election, my reelection and the 1983 session, I became a very active Iowa supporter of Mondale for President. I committed early and became a leader in the Iowa Mondale effort. Even though I was up for reelection in 1984, I decided to spend full-time on the campaign and that was when I met Joe Trippi. Because of the growing importance of “straw polls,” the Mondale campaign moved to compete and the first one after that decision on the calendar was the Florida State Convention in 1983. Joe Trippi organized the pre-Hog team to rush to Florida and I ended up leading the NE Florida campaign out of Jacksonville. The goal was to win or at least come in a close second to Florida Governor Rueben Askew. We had such a strong showing that most political observers thought it was a “win” for Mondale despite the second place finish. This pre-Hog team moved to Maine for the next straw poll and our main opposition was Alan Cranston. I ended up leading a huge number of talented and dedicated young 21-year-olds in the middle third of Maine and our office was in the Augusta area. After we organized the precinct/county delegate recruitment effort we ended up winning the most delegates and the straw poll at the State Convention. This group of young staffers then set their goal on winning the straw poll at the Iowa Jefferson Jackson day fundraiser in Des Moines Iowa and Mondale won. This dedicated group of “Hogs” continued to work to win a huge victory in the Iowa Caucuses with 50% in a large field of competitors!

I was honored to work for my hero through to the General Election (even though I was up for reelection in 1984) and also honored to be a part of one of the best political organizations I have worked for or with. We all learned a great deal about Presidential campaigning and gained so many great friends. We also all ended with a great respect for our leader Walter “Fritz” Mondale. Over the next decades, Fritz continued to be a mentor for many dozens of Mondale “Hogs!” RIP Walter Mondale.

Bev Lindsey

Although I am not an official Hog, I worked along many who were. I started doing advance in 1978 and thus began my decades of affiliation, respect, and utmost admiration of this remarkable man and Joan, his equally amazing wife.

I was the state director in Arkansas during the primaries in 1984. My home was suddenly flooded with young people from all over the country, most of them original Hogs. Some had come early from the Maine straw poll, others came later from Iowa and New Hampshire — Julie Gibson, Clark Benson, Jay Monahan, JoAnn McGuire, and many more — stayed at my house, shared my cars, taught my children things they should not have known. We won the primary, and I later rolled out again to do advance, working with the Hogs who had moved around the country. I saw them in almost every stop. We were all on a mission to save the world. Because we knew WFM would try his damnest if he just won. It was not to be, but not because he and we did not give our best.

What he did accomplish was create the family that we became. It was WFM’s honesty and integrity and devotion that pulled us together and set the tone for all our actions. And in the end, when he lost, he charged us to not stop. It was now our responsibility to continue his work. And we have because a sweet, quiet Norwegian with vision and compassion challenged us to do better.

Les Francis

It may seem strange, but sometime after learning of the death of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, I found myself thinking about elephants, and not because a pachyderm is the symbol of Fritz Mondale’s lifelong opposition — the Republican Party. And not because elephants are descendants of huge creatures from the dinosaur era, although younger readers might view folks like Mondale and me dinosaurs because of our age and progressive ideals; it can be argued that Joe Biden’s election as president, and his address to Congress Wednesday evening, show that such principles are very much alive in America.

No, I have thought about my friend, former boss and mentor Fritz Mondale and elephants together for another reason. As environmental activist and wildlife advocate Amelia Meyer has written:

“The elephant’s capacity for sadness and grief is truly unique amongst members of the animal world. … Because elephants live in such close-knit herds and live for about as long as humans do (approximately 70 years), they form strong bonds with those around them. When these ones die, the rest of the herd mourns that death.”

Those who worked for and with Fritz Mondale in the Senate, the White House, in political campaigns — including his crushing defeat for president in 1984 — formed strong bonds with him, and with one another. To a person, we admired him, respected him, were inspired by him. Dare I say it, we loved him. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/05/01/in_memory_of_fritz_mondale_--_a_political_giant__loyal_friend__145690.html

Pat “Mama Hog” Eltman

I painted this for WFM and gave it to him at the reunion in 2016. It commemorates the beginning of the Hog Journey in Maine in the Summer of 1983.

Rarely in modern life do the decision makers who sit at the top of the power pyramid ever listen to those at the very bottom — despite the fact that the people at the bottom are expected to carry out the mission of the organization or institution.

A few years ago I began to think about this. How could we easily capture the valuable insights, ideas, observations, and wisdom from the frontline, hands-on, experience of peer groups that reside at the bottom of the power pyramid? What could they tell the leaders about issues that are plaguing the system? How could we make it comfortable for them to come forward and share what they know in a way that could be used to inform policy making and priority-setting?

Thus was born WikiWisdom. This process harnesses the power of technology, peer collaboration, and networks to unearth front-line wisdom and connect it to people in power.

In traditional organizational structures, insights, ideas, and recommendations must overcome the impediments created by layers of bureaucracy before they can rise to the top. The bright ideas that start on this journey often arrive in a very different form, having been rearticulated, rewritten, and reformatted until they have lost their essential truth.

WikiWisdom is the solution to this problem.

This process uses the Internet to offer people a chance to do more than gripe about their situation. It gives them the opportunity to use their knowledge to tell the powers that be how to do things better. It’s a rare gift to people at both ends of the power structure.

Since launching this methodology I have seen it used successfully with social workers, nurses, patients, teachers and professional women. Their collaborative intelligence has been presented to a governor, a mayor, NGO presidents, CEOs, and the Obama Administration.

In a Ted Talk, the American writer Clay Shirk advocated that combining human generosity, the ease of sharing on the Internet, and people’s free time, society has available a “cognitive surplus” to help solve problems and find new solutions.

WikiWisdom gives leaders a way to harness the “cognitive surplus” of those who are closest to the customer, the student, the patient. By working collaboratively as a peer group, those frontline workers can solve problems and create new ideas based upon their experience. The WikiWisdom process works because the participants are guaranteed their ideas will be heard by someone in power.

How does it work?

There are six steps to a WikiWisdom project:

1. Start at the top. The leader of the organization agrees to listen and learn from the frontline workers about a specific problem facing the organization. This can be a risky proposition for leaders because there are no guarantees they will like what they hear.

2. Guarantee access. Participants are drawn to the online conversation by the promise that their ideas will be presented directly to someone who has the desire to listen to them and the power to effect change.

3. Generate ideas. A targeted group of peers — those frontline experts — are invited to an online, moderated conversation. They register under their real names — no anonymity here — and share ideas on how to solve a specific problem using their everyday experience in the workplace or in their community. The moderation ensures everyone is heard and that gripes are turned into actionable ideas.

4. Sort the data. An algorithm identifies the most engaged thought leaders in the idea generation phase. Once the online discussion ends, these individuals are invited to join a small group that will take the ideas to the next step.

5. Mine the “cognitive surplus.” The small group of thought leaders work with the moderator to distill and expand the ideas generated by the large group into a written report filled with actionable ideas and solutions.

6. Back up to the top. The thought leader group meets in person with the leader of the organization to present the group’s ideas and get direct feedback.

To date, WikiWisdom has helped a large hospital chain understand how to better serve patients and their families, helped a large school district understand how to better use time in school to benefit students, and helped a nonprofit understand what executive women need to blast through the glass ceiling. This is a process with infinite possibilities. Anywhere there is a leader willing to listen and workers willing to offer solutions, WikiWisdom can be the process that facilitates positive change.

What is WikiWisdom?

Rarely in modern life do the decision makers who sit at the top of the power pyramid ever listen to those at the very bottom — despite the fact that the people at the bottom are expected to carry out the mission of the organization or institution.

A few years ago I began to think about this. How could we easily capture the valuable insights, ideas, observations, and wisdom from the frontline, hands-on, experience of peer groups that reside at the bottom of the power pyramid? What could they tell the leaders about issues that are plaguing the system? How could we make it comfortable for them to come forward and share what they know in a way that could be used to inform policy making and priority-setting?

Thus was born WikiWisdom. This process harnesses the power of technology, peer collaboration, and networks to unearth front-line wisdom and connect it to people in power.

In traditional organizational structures, insights, ideas, and recommendations must overcome the impediments created by layers of bureaucracy before they can rise to the top. The bright ideas that start on this journey often arrive in a very different form, having been rearticulated, rewritten, and reformatted until they have lost their essential truth.

WikiWisdom is the solution to this problem.

This process uses the Internet to offer people a chance to do more than gripe about their situation. It gives them the opportunity to use their knowledge to tell the powers that be how to do things better. It’s a rare gift to people at both ends of the power structure.

Since launching this methodology I have seen it used successfully with social workers, nurses, patients, teachers and professional women. Their collaborative intelligence has been presented to a governor, a mayor, NGO presidents, CEOs, and the Obama Administration.

In a Ted Talk, the American writer Clay Shirk advocated that combining human generosity, the ease of sharing on the Internet, and people’s free time, society has available a “cognitive surplus” to help solve problems and find new solutions.

WikiWisdom gives leaders a way to harness the “cognitive surplus” of those who are closest to the customer, the student, the patient. By working collaboratively as a peer group, those frontline workers can solve problems and create new ideas based upon their experience. The WikiWisdom process works because the participants are guaranteed their ideas will be heard by someone in power.

How does it work?

There are six steps to a WikiWisdom project:

1. Start at the top. The leader of the organization agrees to listen and learn from the frontline workers about a specific problem facing the organization. This can be a risky proposition for leaders because there are no guarantees they will like what they hear.

2. Guarantee access. Participants are drawn to the online conversation by the promise that their ideas will be presented directly to someone who has the desire to listen to them and the power to effect change.

3. Generate ideas. A targeted group of peers — those frontline experts — are invited to an online, moderated conversation. They register under their real names — no anonymity here — and share ideas on how to solve a specific problem using their everyday experience in the workplace or in their community. The moderation ensures everyone is heard and that gripes are turned into actionable ideas.

4. Sort the data. An algorithm identifies the most engaged thought leaders in the idea generation phase. Once the online discussion ends, these individuals are invited to join a small group that will take the ideas to the next step.

5. Mine the “cognitive surplus.” The small group of thought leaders work with the moderator to distill and expand the ideas generated by the large group into a written report filled with actionable ideas and solutions.

6. Back up to the top. The thought leader group meets in person with the leader of the organization to present the group’s ideas and get direct feedback.

To date, WikiWisdom has helped a large hospital chain understand how to better serve patients and their families, helped a large school district understand how to better use time in school to benefit students, and helped a nonprofit understand what executive women need to blast through the glass ceiling. This is a process with infinite possibilities. Anywhere there is a leader willing to listen and workers willing to offer solutions, WikiWisdom can be the process that facilitates positive change.

What is WikiWisdom?

Rarely in modern life do the decision makers who sit at the top of the power pyramid ever listen to those at the very bottom — despite the fact that the people at the bottom are expected to carry out the mission of the organization or institution.

A few years ago I began to think about this. How could we easily capture the valuable insights, ideas, observations, and wisdom from the frontline, hands-on, experience of peer groups that reside at the bottom of the power pyramid? What could they tell the leaders about issues that are plaguing the system? How could we make it comfortable for them to come forward and share what they know in a way that could be used to inform policy making and priority-setting?

Thus was born WikiWisdom. This process harnesses the power of technology, peer collaboration, and networks to unearth front-line wisdom and connect it to people in power.

In traditional organizational structures, insights, ideas, and recommendations must overcome the impediments created by layers of bureaucracy before they can rise to the top. The bright ideas that start on this journey often arrive in a very different form, having been rearticulated, rewritten, and reformatted until they have lost their essential truth.

WikiWisdom is the solution to this problem.

This process uses the Internet to offer people a chance to do more than gripe about their situation. It gives them the opportunity to use their knowledge to tell the powers that be how to do things better. It’s a rare gift to people at both ends of the power structure.

Since launching this methodology I have seen it used successfully with social workers, nurses, patients, teachers and professional women. Their collaborative intelligence has been presented to a governor, a mayor, NGO presidents, CEOs, and the Obama Administration.

In a Ted Talk, the American writer Clay Shirk advocated that combining human generosity, the ease of sharing on the Internet, and people’s free time, society has available a “cognitive surplus” to help solve problems and find new solutions.

WikiWisdom gives leaders a way to harness the “cognitive surplus” of those who are closest to the customer, the student, the patient. By working collaboratively as a peer group, those frontline workers can solve problems and create new ideas based upon their experience. The WikiWisdom process works because the participants are guaranteed their ideas will be heard by someone in power.

How does it work?

There are six steps to a WikiWisdom project:

1. Start at the top. The leader of the organization agrees to listen and learn from the frontline workers about a specific problem facing the organization. This can be a risky proposition for leaders because there are no guarantees they will like what they hear.

2. Guarantee access. Participants are drawn to the online conversation by the promise that their ideas will be presented directly to someone who has the desire to listen to them and the power to effect change.

3. Generate ideas. A targeted group of peers — those frontline experts — are invited to an online, moderated conversation. They register under their real names — no anonymity here — and share ideas on how to solve a specific problem using their everyday experience in the workplace or in their community. The moderation ensures everyone is heard and that gripes are turned into actionable ideas.

4. Sort the data. An algorithm identifies the most engaged thought leaders in the idea generation phase. Once the online discussion ends, these individuals are invited to join a small group that will take the ideas to the next step.

5. Mine the “cognitive surplus.” The small group of thought leaders work with the moderator to distill and expand the ideas generated by the large group into a written report filled with actionable ideas and solutions.

6. Back up to the top. The thought leader group meets in person with the leader of the organization to present the group’s ideas and get direct feedback.

To date, WikiWisdom has helped a large hospital chain understand how to better serve patients and their families, helped a large school district understand how to better use time in school to benefit students, and helped a nonprofit understand what executive women need to blast through the glass ceiling. This is a process with infinite possibilities. Anywhere there is a leader willing to listen and workers willing to offer solutions, WikiWisdom can be the process that facilitates positive change.

What is WikiWisdom?

Rarely in modern life do the decision makers who sit at the top of the power pyramid ever listen to those at the very bottom — despite the fact that the people at the bottom are expected to carry out the mission of the organization or institution.

A few years ago I began to think about this. How could we easily capture the valuable insights, ideas, observations, and wisdom from the frontline, hands-on, experience of peer groups that reside at the bottom of the power pyramid? What could they tell the leaders about issues that are plaguing the system? How could we make it comfortable for them to come forward and share what they know in a way that could be used to inform policy making and priority-setting?

Thus was born WikiWisdom. This process harnesses the power of technology, peer collaboration, and networks to unearth front-line wisdom and connect it to people in power.

In traditional organizational structures, insights, ideas, and recommendations must overcome the impediments created by layers of bureaucracy before they can rise to the top. The bright ideas that start on this journey often arrive in a very different form, having been rearticulated, rewritten, and reformatted until they have lost their essential truth.

WikiWisdom is the solution to this problem.

This process uses the Internet to offer people a chance to do more than gripe about their situation. It gives them the opportunity to use their knowledge to tell the powers that be how to do things better. It’s a rare gift to people at both ends of the power structure.

Since launching this methodology I have seen it used successfully with social workers, nurses, patients, teachers and professional women. Their collaborative intelligence has been presented to a governor, a mayor, NGO presidents, CEOs, and the Obama Administration.

In a Ted Talk, the American writer Clay Shirk advocated that combining human generosity, the ease of sharing on the Internet, and people’s free time, society has available a “cognitive surplus” to help solve problems and find new solutions.

WikiWisdom gives leaders a way to harness the “cognitive surplus” of those who are closest to the customer, the student, the patient. By working collaboratively as a peer group, those frontline workers can solve problems and create new ideas based upon their experience. The WikiWisdom process works because the participants are guaranteed their ideas will be heard by someone in power.

How does it work?

There are six steps to a WikiWisdom project:

1. Start at the top. The leader of the organization agrees to listen and learn from the frontline workers about a specific problem facing the organization. This can be a risky proposition for leaders because there are no guarantees they will like what they hear.

2. Guarantee access. Participants are drawn to the online conversation by the promise that their ideas will be presented directly to someone who has the desire to listen to them and the power to effect change.

3. Generate ideas. A targeted group of peers — those frontline experts — are invited to an online, moderated conversation. They register under their real names — no anonymity here — and share ideas on how to solve a specific problem using their everyday experience in the workplace or in their community. The moderation ensures everyone is heard and that gripes are turned into actionable ideas.

4. Sort the data. An algorithm identifies the most engaged thought leaders in the idea generation phase. Once the online discussion ends, these individuals are invited to join a small group that will take the ideas to the next step.

5. Mine the “cognitive surplus.” The small group of thought leaders work with the moderator to distill and expand the ideas generated by the large group into a written report filled with actionable ideas and solutions.

6. Back up to the top. The thought leader group meets in person with the leader of the organization to present the group’s ideas and get direct feedback.

To date, WikiWisdom has helped a large hospital chain understand how to better serve patients and their families, helped a large school district understand how to better use time in school to benefit students, and helped a nonprofit understand what executive women need to blast through the glass ceiling. This is a process with infinite possibilities. Anywhere there is a leader willing to listen and workers willing to offer solutions, WikiWisdom can be the process that facilitates positive change.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both.” Sound familiar?

“I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence / Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.”

It has been ages and ages, but I’m not telling this with a sigh. Thirty-five years ago, I walked out of the Stokes Center, looked at the roads before me and ignored them both. I bushwhacked a third road. I charted my own direction.

I didn’t choose a career in business or the law, though I think both are admirable. I jumped into the low-paying, freewheeling, late-night, exhilarating world of grassroots politics.

Early in my career, when I heard then-President Ronald Reagan make an absurd comment about the “deadly” carbon dioxide released by the forests, I led a bunch of activists in a headline-grabbing “killer trees” protest in front of the White House.

A few years later I found myself in Texas working out of a dumpy, windowless office, organizing Texans for Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Turns out, there weren’t a lot of Texans for Dukakis. And in the end, there weren’t enough Americans for Dukakis.

You see I’ve failed plenty. But I’ve had some triumphs too. I’ve lived a life I can believe in. And it was because I chose my own direction. I bushwhacked that third road. And that’s the first little piece of advice I want to leave with you today: consider the unexpected. Seek challenges bigger than yourself.

Here’s the second piece of advice I want you to wrestle with…

With every new advance in social media, it’s becoming easier and easier to follow the mob. To think whatever your “friends” think. To stay isolated inside your own information bunker.

The experts call it the “filter bubble” — we filter out everything that we don’t agree with, everything outside our narrow set of interests, and we wind up in a bubble.

That bubble is dangerous. Dangerous for you and dangerous for our democracy. I urge you to break the bubble.

Today and next week and next month, as you journey forward in life, imagine a path very different than the one that is expected of you. Different than the one you expect.

Maybe, in the end, your calling will be what you always thought it would be. And that’s fine. That’s terrific . But first, imagine something different.

When I left St. Francis the most important thing I took with me was not my diploma or the lessons learned in class. The most important thing I took with me…were my friendships.

It is much easier for your generation to stay in touch than it was for mine. And that’s great. I’m not going to stand here and tell you Facebook doesn’t matter.

Actually, I am. Facebook doesn’t matter.

It’s fine to be voyeur — to watch someone’s canned, on-line version of him or herself from afar.

Being in someone’s life takes much more than observing it. Being there for defeat is just as important as celebrating victory. Providing comfort in times of sorrow is as important as witnessing joy. Tragedies require love, in person if possible.

With us today is one of my closest friends in the world — John O’Donnell, who graduated from St. Francis with me in 1979. He’s here to celebrate with you — and to make sure I don’t tell any stories I shouldn’t about our decades of friendship.

So, I won’t tell you any of those stories. But I will tell you this. Ever since we left St. Francis, we have been there for each other. We have showed up announced and unexpected.

In 1991, I convinced John to leave the mountains of Colorado and come work with me at the Democratic media firm I had just co-founded in Washington DC. John — my most conservative, most Republican pal. Why? I needed a friend, someone I could trust. He needed a way back East, to be with his dying parents.

We’ve had a great and meaningful run with our friendship. But here’s what important. We don’t agree on one political issue. Not one. But we used our friendship to burst some early version of the filter bubble. We’ve worked hard at what really matters in a friendship.

OK, so you’re with me so far, I hope. You’re resisting conformity, you’re really there for your friends. You’re working with your friends, perhaps, to resist conformity. That brings me to the last thing I’d like to share with you today.

You, me, all of us…are products of networks. You got here, in large part, because of your parents’ networks, your community’s networks — they created the structures that shaped your choices, that allowed you to succeed.

Here at St. Francis, you’ve begun to develop your own network. And you will continue to build it as life goes forward — fellow alumni, graduate school connections, people you meet at work, community leaders, organizations you join and the parents of your future children’s friends will all become part of your network.

But it’s not how big and powerful your network will be. It is how you choose to use it. Will you only use others in your network to pull yourself up? Or will you be generous? Will you continually reach down and help pull other people up? Will you catch somebody when they fall?

Will you be a real friend to the people in your network? Will you share what you’ve learned on that third road? Will you do the unexpected and make a difference in their lives?

I hope you will.

The digital age we live in is not going away, which is why it has never been more important to reject the closed, conformist mentality the internet and cable news can foster. Be vigilant to this threat against your thinking. The threat to you living your life, your way.

Steer your lives away from the thoughtless and expected and create something genuine, human, purposeful and unexpected.

Congratulations to you and your family. And good luck on what ever path you choose to take…or create.

Thank You.

Delivered to the Saint Francis University Class of 2014 on May 11, 2014