[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13002]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 COMMEMORATING THE 40TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY OF JOE AND BARBARA SALTZMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 15, 2002

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Joe and Barbara 
Saltzman who were married on July 1, 1962, and are now celebrating 
their 40th wedding anniversary. They are the children of Ruth and 
Murray Saltzman and Sid and Lillian Epstein, the parents of David and 
Michael Saltzman, the parents-in-law of Jennifer Saltzman, and the 
grandparents of Samantha and Sarah Saltzman.
  Joe and Barbara Saltzman have been active as professional journalists 
in the community for four decades, with Joe Saltzman having won more 
than 50 awards as a broadcast journalist including the Columbia 
University-duPont broadcast journalism award, four Emmys, four Golden 
Mikes, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Silver Gavel, and one of the 
first NAACP Image Awards, and Barbara Saltzman having been a member of 
the Los Angeles Times staff for 22 years and editor of the daily 
Calendar section.
  When their son David, a Chadwick School graduate, tragically died of 
Hodgkin's disease after graduating from Yale, Joe and Barbara could 
have turned their backs on the world. Instead, they mortgaged their 
house to keep a promise they had made to David. They promised that if 
he finished his children's book, The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, they 
would make sure it would be published in the way he envisioned it and 
would donate it to children who were suffering from illnesses.
  Joe and Barbara made that promise a reality producing more than 
40,000 Jester books and 35,000 Jester & Pharley Dolls that have been 
donated to ill and special-needs children. The book has also become a 
national best-seller and there are more than 300,000 copies in 
circulation. To further their efforts, Joe and Barbara Saltzman have 
created The Jester & Pharley Phund, a non-profit charity so that they 
can continue the mission of giving every child a sense of hope, a 
feeling of empowerment, a love of learning, the joy of laughter, and 
the desire to live up to The Jester & Pharley's motto: ``It's up to us 
to make a difference, it's up to us to care. . . .''
  Barbara has become ``The Jester's Mom'' bringing the Jester & 
Pharley's message of hope and laughter to thousands of children in 
hospitals and schools throughout the country. Joe has served the 
community as a professor of journalism at the University of Southern 
California Annenberg School for Communication for more than 35 years 
and continues to serve as an educator, academic, journalist and 
administrator.
  Mr. Speaker, Joe and Barbara Saltzman have dedicated their lives to 
helping children who need to hear the Jester's message and have made a 
significant difference in the lives of so many people who need to find 
hope and laughter. I commend their commitment in bringing a little more 
happiness to all our lives.

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