Walter "Fritz" Mondale served as Vice President of the United States under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Mondale worked as the United States Senator from Minnesota from 1964 through 1976.  He was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984, and the first to select a woman as a Vice Presidential running mate for a major party – Geraldine Ferraro. From 1993 to 1996 Mondale served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton.