Lisa Marie Davidson, a former
Bucks student, Centurion reporter
and freelance writer for the Bucks
County Courier-Times who overcame
enormous odds to fulfill her
dream of becoming a journalist,
died last week. She was 41.
Davidson diedMonday, Oct. 12,
at her home in Warminster. She
was currently taking classes at
Bucks, though she had completed
her associate’s degree in journalism
in 2008.
Davidson, who was blind, was a
familiar figure at Bucks as she
made her way around campus
with her guide dog, Eagle.
Blindness wasn’t the only obstacle
Davison faced. She had also
suffered a number of health ailments
and was an organ transplant
recipient.
But she never let those things
get in the way of her academic
success – she was a scholarship
winner and a regular on the dean’s
list – or her ultimate dream of becoming
a working reporter.
“She was a great student,” said
Susan Darrah, assistant academic
dean for the Department of Language
and Literature.
Journalism Professor Tony
Rogers said Davidson was one of
his best students and a star reporter
at the Centurion.
“She didn’t just overcome barriers,
she shattered them,” Rogers
said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had
a student who faced so much adversity,
yet succeeded anyway.”
Davidson never let her blindness
define her as a person. Indeed,
she even had a sense of
humor about it.
Rogers recalled how, for the
Centurion’s April fool’s issue,
Davidson came up with the idea
for a faux crime story about her
guide dog attacking him in the
middle of a journalism class.
The article, accompanied by a
staged photograph of the brutal
“attack,” was one of the big hits of
the issue, though it was criticized
by one reader who complained
that the story was making fun of seeingimp
airedpeople.
In response to that criticism, Davidson
wrote a defiant op-ed piece the following
week, saying that she didn’t need
anyone to speak for her. She was,
she wrote, perfectly capable of defending
herself.
Marie Cooper, director of disability
services at Bucks and a
friend of Davidson’s, said, “Lisa
lived life the way I wish I did, but
she also fought to live in a way
that most of us don’t have to. I
learned a lot by her motivation,
her struggle with things she couldn’t
change, and her joy.”
“She took the initiative to make
her life better, not expecting anyone
to carry her,” Cooper added.
After completing her journalism
degree, Davidson became a freelance
obituary writer for the
Courier Times. She crafted her
obits with her customary warmth,
humor and humanity, as in this article
about the death of a man who
loved hitchhiking:
“Nicholas Kowalcheck appeared
to love hitchhiking in his
neck of the woods- Bensalem,
Pennsylvania. Even after a series
of accidents in his later years, he
still took to the road. He died August
1 due to lung cancer, but
here’s to a man who boldly stuck
out his thumb in the twilight
years.”
Rogers recounted how, in one of
her last e-mails to him, Davidson
wrote: “Life is a big celebration;
being here and overcoming its
challenges is a definite confirmation
of that fact for all of us. Remember,
never say you can’t do
anything.”
In addition to her parents,
Joseph A. Cioppi Sr. of Hatboro
and Rosemarie (Radlbeck) Cioppi
of Chalfont, Davidson is survived
by two brothers, Joseph A. Cioppi
Jr. of Abington and Danny Cioppi
of Hatboro; her former husband
Robert Davidson, and dear friend
of 28 years, Heather Gravelle.
Donations in her name may be
made to either the Guide Dog
Foundation, 371 East Jericho
Turnpike, Smithtown, NY 11787-
2976, or to the Bucks County Association
for the Blind and
Visually Impaired, 400 Freedom
Dr., Newtown, Pa., 18940.