40 Fun Facts About Dave Pelzer

Dave Pelzer, whose lectures are full of jokes, likens himself to which comedian, only with glasses?

Robin Williams is the comparison he reaches for, and his talks mix his life story with rapid impressions. He has also longed for a career in stand-up comedy.

Which branch of the US military did Dave Pelzer join at 18, straight after leaving foster care?

The Air Force gave him 13 years of structure after a childhood spent in foster homes. He left as a technical sergeant and built a second career as a writer and speaker.

Which honor did Dave Pelzer receive in connection with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta?

Carrying the Olympic torch put him in the relay for the centennial Games, held a century after the first modern Olympics in Athens.

The US publisher of Dave Pelzer's bestseller A Child Called "It" also produced which inspirational books?

Chicken Soup for the Soul came from the same Florida self-help press, Health Communications. It kept his memoir in stock through slow early sales until a talk show appearance created instant demand.

Which music star, honored in 1970, shares the Jaycees title Ten Outstanding Young Americans with Dave Pelzer?

Elvis Presley was honored for entertainment, and Pelzer followed in 1993 for personal accomplishment. John F. Kennedy and Orson Welles appear on the same list.

Which highly secretive spy plane was Dave Pelzer hand-picked to refuel in midair during his military career?

SR-71 Blackbird missions depended on fuel delivered in flight, and Pelzer was among the crew trusted to do it. He was also chosen to refuel the F-117 stealth fighter.

Who alerted the authorities in March 1973, leading to Dave Pelzer's removal from his mother's home?

His teachers stepped in when he was 12, and he went into foster care. His talks still pay tribute to the school staff, police and social workers who helped him.

Critics trace which bestselling publishing genre of the 2000s back to Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It"?

Misery lit sold so well that the Waterstones chain gave such memoirs their own section, named Painful Lives.

Dave Pelzer's father Stephen, who gave him a work badge as a parting gift, had which job?

Firefighter Stephen Pelzer handed over the badge as a goodbye present. Decades later his son followed him into the work as a volunteer and was twice named Volunteer Firefighter of the Year.

Which Dave Pelzer memoir, the sequel to A Child Called "It", follows his teenage years in foster homes?

The Lost Boy follows him through five different foster homes, and its subtitle calls the story a search for the love of a family.

The subtitle of Dave Pelzer's memoir of adulthood, A Man Named Dave, promises a story of triumph and what else?

Forgiveness runs through the book, in which the adult Pelzer pardons his father for standing by and finally confronts his mother.

Which single word does Dave Pelzer say his message has always been about, in books and school talks alike?

Resilience is the thread he names, and he pairs it with personal responsibility when he speaks to high school students and adults.

Which action film star does Dave Pelzer most enjoy mimicking, a Guardian interviewer found in 2004?

Arnold Schwarzenegger is his favorite star to imitate. Pelzer peppers his conversation with film references and delivers much of his serious message through comedy.

Which organization ranked Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" among the most challenged books of the 2010s?

American Library Association records placed it 36th on the decade's list of most banned and challenged titles, yet the group's youth division twice named it a popular paperback for young adults.

Which condition do Dave Pelzer's memoirs attribute to both his abusive mother and his passive father?

Alcoholism shaped the whole household in his telling: his mother drank heavily for years, and his father's drinking cost him his own job.

Dave Pelzer has called himself a nominee for which literary honor, a label Slate called misleading?

Pulitzer Prize entries can be sent in by almost anyone, so being entered is not the same as being shortlisted. Pelzer was neither a winner nor a named finalist.

Dave Pelzer told a reporter that appearing with which talk show host gave his books only a little bounce?

Oprah Winfrey had him on in January 2002, but he said the bounce was not enough to reach the bestseller list. An earlier daytime slot had done far more for his first memoir.

Dave Pelzer's second wife, Marsha Donohoe, first worked with him in which professional role?

His editor first, Marsha Donohoe went on to marry him and to work alongside him as his executive director.

Which brother of Dave Pelzer wrote his own memoir of the family's abuse, titled A Brother's Journey?

Richard Pelzer backed up much of his older brother's account and wrote that he became their mother's next target once Dave was removed from the home.

Most publishers in which country rejected Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" before Orion made it a bestseller?

Britain proved the doubters wrong: the first print run sold out to shops six weeks before publication, helped by an underground market in the American edition.

In 2005 Dave Pelzer won which national public service honor, co-founded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?

Jefferson Award winners at the national level have included Colin Powell and Sandra Day O'Connor. The honor was created in 1972 to reward public and community service.

Dave Pelzer, who spent his teens in foster care, later worked as a counselor at which kind of facility?

Juvenile hall held him for a spell during his foster years, and he has since given thousands of talks in such facilities and in schools.

In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, a bar worker keeps the runaway child waiting for police with which food?

Pizza was the bait that kept him there until officers arrived, and his father later came to the station to take him home.

In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, he does chores in his foster home to pay for repairs to what?

A bicycle mattered so much that once it was fixed he rode it down the street where his old home stood, and his family then contacted his foster parents.

In Dave Pelzer's second memoir, which incident does a supposed friend blame on him, taking him out of his foster home?

A classroom fire got out of control although he tried to put it out, and the other boy then let him take the blame.

Which John Steinbeck story did Dave Pelzer name as his favorite book, kissing his interviewer's copy?

Of Mice and Men was the book the journalist happened to be reading that day, and Pelzer, she noted, believes coincidences are divine in origin.

Dave Pelzer says he overcame a childhood speech impediment by reciting what at a mirror every day?

The alphabet took him half an hour a day, and he recalls nearly three weeks passing before he noticed any improvement.

Which US president, in office when A Child Called "It" came out, features in Dave Pelzer's stage impressions?

Bill Clinton was one of the voices he fell back on when a newspaper interviewer challenged his story, answering in character instead.

Which California river, Dave Pelzer's childhood haven, gives his memoir Return to the River its setting?

The Russian River was the happy part of his childhood, and he later founded annual humanitarian awards for people serving that area.

Dave Pelzer's mother once followed a family outing to which city district with a themed dinner at home?

Chinatown inspired her to hang paper lanterns and cook a matching meal in costume, a memory he sets against the cruelty that followed.

Which American novelist has Dave Pelzer quoted on his official website as a motto he lives by?

Jack London's credo about truly living, rather than merely existing, has sat on the home page among the quotes Pelzer says he lives by.

The full title of Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It" adds a subtitle about one child's what to survive?

Courage is the word on the cover. The memoir opens a trilogy and has been translated into nearly forty languages.

Where did Dave Pelzer's mother move with his younger brothers after he was taken into care?

Salt Lake City became the family's new base, and in 2006 two of the five brothers were living there, as was their grandmother.

In which West Coast city was Dave Pelzer born in December 1960, the second of five brothers?

San Francisco was also where his father worked, while the family home lay just to the south in suburban Daly City.

Dave Pelzer refueled combat aircraft in midair during which conflict?

Gulf War missions put him among the tanker crews keeping coalition jets fueled, and he left the military soon afterwards.

A Guardian interviewer noticed that Dave Pelzer has which unusual habit when he talks about himself?

Using the third person, he calls himself Dave, David James or even Mr Pelzer, as if describing somebody else.

By his own account, Dave Pelzer spent weeks at a time between 2006 and 2010, at his own expense, doing what?

Visiting deployed troops took him to bases in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, where he mixed counseling with comedy routines.

How does Dave Pelzer refer to his four brothers throughout his memoir A Child Called "It"?

By pseudonyms, a choice his memoir-writing brother also made; Dave's first wife appears in his books under an invented name too.

Dave Pelzer told a Guardian interviewer he belongs to which church, while calling his religion a private thing?

Catholic by his own description, he also told her that he believes coincidences are divine in origin.

Dave Pelzer's memoir of his teens mentions his fondness for cigars, merlot and which style of music?

Jazz completes the trio, though he says his idea of a good evening is sitting quietly at home with his wife and dogs.