On Tuesday, November 18th, Mr. Bob Weil returned to Mamaroneck High School for the first time since the early 70s. He is a Yale graduate and successful editor at W. W. Norton who has published dozens of books, most notably by Nelson Mandela, Paul McCartney and Pete Buttigieg. Before any of this, he graduated from Mamaroneck High School after working as the Editor-In-Chief of the school newspaper, called The Probe and The Record at the time.
He brought with him archival issues of The Probe that now have a permanent home at MHS. The articles in the paper serve as a time capsule of what it was like to be a member of the MHS community at that time. One article featured a school walkout to the Mamaroneck post office following the Kent State Shootings in May of 1970. He noted that during a complicated political time, the school community was politically active and The Probe covered it all.
The Globe staff discussed the intricacies of running a school newspaper, and Mr. Weil pointed out a few differences from when he was in charge. Today, The Globe has no political affiliation and aims to report news without bias. In the 70s, the newspaper didn’t have a political affiliation but reported on liberal topics. Mr. Weil noted an article on Marat Sade, a play that is far from school-appropriate today. “We had no problem running pieces with risky topics,” he said.
Along with The Probe and The Record, there also was a county-wide school newspaper, to which editors and reporters from high schools across Westchester contributed. He remembers that at one point, the leader of this paper was a White Plains student who got expelled from school shortly after taking on his leadership role.
One column in the newspaper was started by Mr. Weil: a restaurant column. He wrote a piece on Walter’s Hotdogs and noted that at this time, their hotdogs were only $0.30.
He pointed out another important article to the staff– one announcing girls were allowed to wear pants to school. Before this article and change in policy, girls’ skirts needed to go down to their knees. If they didn’t pass this marker, they were sent to the nurse to change. Boys had a dress code too; they were required to wear tucked in collared shirts to school.
Mr. Weil brought fresh copies of many of the books he has published, a donation to the MHS English department. He noted, “I’ve spent a lot of my career dealing with books on race.” Although he got his writing education at Mamaroneck, this aspect of it did not come from his childhood. “People didn’t talk about race, and the school newspaper didn’t address it.” Most of the political articles were instead about white, middle class problems, though some reflected general concerns,  like the draft for the Vietnam War.
Mr. Weil’s visit affirmed the longstanding legacy of The Globe and brought a full Mamaroneck history lesson. The Globe will be rerunning some of his best articles with echoed versions written by Globe writers. Keep an eye out for these in 2026!