David with his granddaughter Emma and Edie Auslander.
David Fitzsimmons, the Arizona Daily Star’s cartoonist, has raised millions for Tucson’s charities for a quarter century by being the provocative, funny and entertaining master of ceremonies at thousands of charity events. He is Mr. Chicken Dinner with a black marker pen and a thick paper pad three by four feet perched on an easel. (Click here for a selection of FitzFotos.)
Unless he is booked, he will not say no. Fitz will stand and amuse. Have pad, will travel. He jokes, you guffaw.
For free. Any time as long as the cause is noble, the audience tomato-free and there are a few big names in attendance that he can besmirch, belittle, beguile and charm.
He has been the cartoonist at the Arizona Daily Star since 1986, one of my better hires.
He was born in Merced, Calif. A few months later his parents came to Tucson. He went to Rincon High School and then to the University of Arizona, where he majored in several subjects, but mostly he was cartoonist for the Wildcat. He graduated and found a job as a newspaper artist for the Oklahoman of Oklahoma City.
He moved to the Virginian-Pilot of Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
After his stint with that paper, Fitz landed his first full-time cartoonist job with the Daily Press of Newport News, Va. His boss at that paper was the late Tony Snow who went on to become press spokesman for George W. Bush. He died of colon cancer in 2008 at the age of 53.
I interviewed Fitz and his daughter sometime in 1985 in the coffee shop of the Sheraton Hotel in Reston, Virginia. Sarah, who was not yet 2 years old, was up and down steps and all over the carpet. He said he was anxious to get back to Tucson, but as an editorial cartoonist. Since then, Fitz has been a part of what critics still call the “Red Star,” his cartoons poking fun at, praising, satirizing and annoying. That is the chief reason, I believe, he has never been selected as Tucson’s man of the year. When I was at the Star, we waged a serious campaign to make it so. Alas, we were not successful.
But Fitz nonetheless charges onward, pen in hand, masterfully conducting the ceremony and raising the money — battling breast cancer (he is a cancer survivor), promoting books or paying tribute to long-time heroes such as Big Jim Griffith. He has given enormously to the community and has never been properly recognized for it.
To David Fitzsimmons –
THANKS for your cartoons!!!
Given the little/no action on gun control in our country, I’m thinking
that we human beings should be declared a “protected species”
along with other animals – maybe a cartoon???
David, I left TNI om the 80’s. I’d worked for the then-Adv. Director Michael J. Ryan. I still have an autographed t shirt of yours (when I left- gotta have memories). I left Tucson for a while, but I’ve been back long enough to follow your column. We have a mutual friend: Jay Taylor
A Pittsburgher,
To David Fitzsimmons.
Have recently become acquainted with your fantastic cartoon art. You are a genius.
With such few lines done absolutely masterfully you depict perfectly and capture the complete essence of the individual. So elegant.
David Fitzsimmons bio fails to mention his highly successful and nearly sold out venue “the Arroyo Cafe Holiday Christmas show that he has organized and MC’d for the last several years. He has done and outstanding job of writing the script and organizing local talent from Tucsom. The show is funny and highly entertaining .
Dear Mr. Fitzsimmons, in the name of our Constitutional Republican Mortal State and Liberal Democratic Mortal Society – and Nonviolence, avoiding aggression, and Nonsinning, avoiding harm to others – it is time for America to admit that she is Thomas Jefferson’s “Empire of Liberty” and adopt a stronger Constitution with a Declaration of the Rights of the Person and the Citizen, before the ‘Republican’ Party turns Nazi and turns America into George Orwell’s 1984. The fading ‘Democrats’ have one chance left to stop this. Please look to your mail at the Arizona Daily Star. Buddha, Tao, Kami (Gods), Megami (Megami), Confucius, and Zen Masters and Mistresses Bless those who try to save the ideas of 1776 and 1787 from this humble Japanese American Shinto Shamaness. Cheers!