The Jester & Pharley Phund with President Barbara Saltzman

Home of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle by David Saltzman

The Jester & Pharley Phund is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping children with cancer and other serious illnesses with the inspiration of David Saltzman’s award-winning The Jester Has Lost His Jingle.

The Jester book and Jester & Pharley Doll have been bringing smiles into the lives of thousands of children coping with serious illness. And literacy programs make it possible for students to join The Jester’s journey to help children in crisis.

Barbara Saltzman, President is filled with such energy that she is an inspiration to listen to and watch. The mother of author-illustrator David Saltzman has worked tirelessly to bring her son’s book to children and adults across the country — first publishing the book and now telling the world about it.

The guiding light behind The Jester & Pharley Phund, The Jester’s Mom travels the country inspiring children and helping youngsters realize that it’s up to them to make a difference, it’s up to them to care. An honor graduate of the University of Southern California School of Journalism, Barbara was an editor at the Los Angeles Times before publishing her son’s book and overseeing the creation of The Phund.

In schools and hospitals, auditoriums and libraries, bookstores and business conference rooms Barbara is a sought-after inspirational speaker. It doesn’t matter if she’s reading The Jester to students or to children undergoing chemo or to teachers looking for new ways to motivate students https://thejester.org/ 

Before attending Yale University, David went to Chadwick School in Palos Verdes Peninsula in California. It was there that he began his career as a cartoonist with a comic strip called “The Chadwick Chronicles” in which he regularly parodied student life for the school newspaper.

He also drew editorial cartoons on local, national and international issues for a Los Angeles Times publication distributed to Southern California high schools. He was editor of the yearbook and a recipient of the Citizenship Award and Drama Award.

At Yale, he adapted his character “Pops” into a weekly cartoon strip that chronicled the life of a fictitious Yale professor. He also spun off “Pops” into a series of Yale Academic Calendars and drew weekly editorial cartoons for the Yale Daily News and the Yale Herald. During his senior year, David was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.

For the next year-and-a-half, he kept a comprehensive journal of his thoughts and feelings while working on The Jester Has Lost His Jingle as senior project in art and English. Academy Award-winning animator Faith Hubley, a senior critic in the Yale School of Art and one of David’s professors, said about David’s creations, “The Jester and Pharley are extraordinary characters, at once poignant and humorous.”

In his journal, David wrote in November, 1988, that his friends might feel pain at his leaving, but not he, “for I would be like a seed planted in all of them, and when they would think of me, my memory, my spirit, I would blossom again, live again, be with you again, love you again and be alive within you.”

David died on March 2, 1990, 11 days before his 23rd birthday.

The Jester & Pharley Phund
P.O. Box 817
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274

Office: 310-544-4733
Toll-Free: 800-9-JESTER (537837)
Barbara@thejester.org

Call In and Chat with Deborah during Live Show: 833-220-1200 or 319-527-2638

Learn more about Deborah here:  www.lovebyintuition.com