Online tributes continue filling social media for a retired Central Bucks School District English teacher killed earlier this week after she was struck by a DART bus while walking in Doylestown.
On Facebook, Robert May and Oscar-winner Barry Levinson, who co-directed the PBS docuseries “Bucks County USA,” posted that the entire producing team was devastated to learn of the passing of Katherine “Kitty” Semisch.
“Kitty opened her life to us with generosity and grace, and she inspired everyone she met, on camera and off,” the post read. “Her warmth and conviction are woven into Bucks County, USA, and we will carry them with us.”
Semisch, 67, died on Nov. 2 shortly after she was struck by a Bucks County Transport Bus while walking outside the Bucks County Free Library in Doylestown.
She appeared prominently in the series filmed over four years and released last month, which examined the divisions resulting from culture wars within the district and its aftermath following the 2020 COVID-pandemic and its restrictions, which divided the affluent community.
On Wednesday, May wrote on his Facebook page that Semisch often called him during her routine walks around Doylestown. Semisch reached out to him Sunday, days after she and her husband returned from a trip to Europe and she was ready to jump back into work to heal the community.
“To Kitty, respecting people with opposing views took real work: debate the view, not the person,” May said. “She admitted that reaching out to the other side and offering generous listening wasn’t easy. But she was convinced it was the only way back from a society that has become so divided.”
Central Bucks Regional Police responded to a report of a pedestrian struck at the Bucks County Library in the 150 block of Pine Street around 3 p.m. where they found Semisch fatally injured.
She was allegedly crossing the circle in front of the library, when she was struck, and pronounced dead at Doylestown Hospital a short time later.
The accident remains under investigation by police and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Crash Team. No charges had been filed as of Nov. 4.
Autopsy results released Wednesday determined the death was accidental, the result of blunt impact injuries to her torso, according to the Bucks County Coroner’s Office.
Bucks County Transport did not immediately respond to a Nov. 4 email seeking comment. The private transportation company operates the DART system in Central Bucks County, a shared-ride low-cost bus service.
The company was named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed last month by the family of an 83-year-old Doylestown Township man killed in August in a hit-and-run accident involving a Bucks County Transport bus. A police investigation into the earlier accident is continuing.
The Semisch family, who confirmed her death Nov. 3, had not yet announced funeral plans as of Wednesday.
A Central Bucks School District for 25 of her 27 years in education, Semisch retired from Central Bucks West High School in 2021. She taught English and she also was a certified librarian.
Central Bucks School District Superintendent Joanna Wexler released a community statement Wednesday offering condolences to her family and calling Semisch a strong and vocal public education supporter.
“Generations of students and colleagues knew her as the teacher who made literature come alive, especially in her Advanced Placement Literature courses, where she challenged young people to read closely, think deeply, and find their own voices,” Wexler wrote.
In retirement, Semisch remained involved in the district’s school system and community, as co-founder of Advocates for Inclusive Education, a nonprofit organization that advocated for inclusion, equity and best practices in education.
She also regularly attended often raucous school board meetings to speak against many district policy changes under the previous Republican-majority board, including ones that restricted student access to library books deemed inappropriate.
On Tuesday evening roughly 30 people showed up for an impromptu gathering honoring the memory of Semisch organized by Doylestown resident Lela Casey, a close friend.
“It felt good to be with people who loved her,” Casey said on Wednesday.
She called Semisch among her closest friends, warm, brilliant, respectful, tolerant and one of the funniest people she has ever known.
“She could make you laugh no matter how difficult things were,” Casey said. “She really saw the light in everybody. She was like the sun. She would scoop you up with her warmth.”
The two women met during that contentious school board time, but they became closer friends through the shared experience of filming the docuseries, Casey said.
She recalled, despite often contentious board meetings, Semisch was always the center of calm, reminding people that those on the other side needed to be treated with respect.
“She was the best of us. She rose above all the pettiness,” Casey added. “In a time when our country is so divided Kitty would reach across both sides of the aisle and hug all of us, which is nearly impossible.”
