Katharine L. "Kitty" Leech

KATHARINE LOUISE “KITTY” LEECH


Kitty [Katharine Louise], on July 16, 2015.  Hemingway said that this world “kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially.”  Our brilliant, lovely Kitty was all three of these and so much more, and we all suffer for her loss.  She was an immensely talented costume designer, illustrator, and photographer.  Above all, Kitty was a loyal and loving wife, daughter, friend, sister, niece and aunt; and she was so proud to be a teacher and creative guide for her beloved students at the Tisch School of the Arts.

Kitty’s accomplishments, although many, reflect so little of Kitty’s immense talent and creative soul.  Kitty was born in Philadelphia to Louise and Noyes Leech and received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.  She received her M.F.A. for Design for Stage & Film at Tisch and was forevermore a true New Yorker and loyal alum and professor at Tisch.  Kitty and fellow faculty at Tisch created the Tech Track Studio in the Department of Drama and then she and her designing partner, Gregg Barnes, designed and built costumes for over 150 productions at Tisch.  She taught costume design, figure drawing, and costume history and was an advisor in the Gallitin School.  Every year, Kitty would produce her hugely popular Project Onstage for student designers at Tisch. Kitty also taught at the Playwrights Horizon’s Theatre School, Parson’s School of Design, the Pratt Institute of Design, and Lincoln Center.

Kitty received a Hewes Design Award nomination for Goblin Market at Circle-in-the-Square Theatre; she designed for numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, national and international productions, corporations, and magazines; and she was resident costume designer at the Lyrics and Lyricists concert series for many years.  Kitty was proudest of her work for Cinderella/Cendrillon and Gross Indecency:  the Three Trials of Oscar Wilde which premiered at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City and went on to numerous theaters in the USA and in England, including the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End. Kitty had numerous showings of her costume sketches, watercolors and photographs in New York City and Philadelphia, and she received the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Curator’s Choice award at the San Francisco Print Fair.  Kitty’s talents also extended to writing and illustrating The Mermaid Picnic, the Mermaid's Picnic Cookbook and The Dollies, a series of books and calendars.
  
Kitty served as Chair of the IATSE Costume Design Exam Committee, Chair of the TDF Costume Collection Advisory Committee, and Chair of the Irene Sharaff Young Master Award Committee.  She was a member of the board of the Mid Manhattan Performing Arts Foundation and the New York Women in Film and Television.

With all she accomplished in her life, Kitty remained humble and encouraging to her students and all who knew her loved her for her pure spirit.  She will be forever missed by her beloved husband, Scot Galliher, her sister Gwyneth Leech and husband David Wilson, their children Megan and Grace Wilson, her aunt Martha Wittman, her cousins Ben, Laila and Josh Wittman, her many Leech and Gallagher cousins, her sisters-in-law Delia Jackson and Caroline Orr, her nieces and nephews by marriage, especially Tanya and Leyna Jackson, Kira Premack, Catherine Orr, and Eric and Allison Galliher, her numerous design and faculty colleagues, her students, and her friends, all of whom recognized the unique and magical spirit that was Kitty Leech.

On Wednesday, August 5th at 2 PM the Leech/Wilson/Wittman Family welcomes all to a funeral service of remembrance for their beloved sister/niece/aunt/cousin Kitty at the Dean W. Kriner, Inc. Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 325 Market Street, Bloomsburg, followed by graveside rites in Old Rosemont Cemetery, Bloomsburg.

On Saturday August 8th at 2 PM Scot Galliher, Kitty’s husband, will host a private service for family and family friends at Old Rosemont Cemetery.

A memorial service will be held in New York City on a later date, details to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Kitty’s name to the Theatre Development Fund's Irene Sharaff Young Master Awards at: Theatre Development Fund, Attn: Development, 520 8th Avenue, Suite 801, New York, NY 10018. For additional information about how you can make a donation, please call (212) 912-9770 or email development@tdf.org.