Spotlight Story

By Chris DelCampo, Communications Associate

With the passing last spring of Frank A. Weil ’44, our school community lost one of its most prestigious and beloved alumni, a man who led an extraordinary life as a lawyer, renowned financial expert, and assistant U.S. secretary of commerce, yet always found time to be of service to Harvey, a school he loved and credited with guiding him through his formative years. 

What our newer generations within the Harvey community may not know is how great a role Frank Weil played in saving The Harvey School at one of its darkest hours – when New York State imposed its right of eminent domain upon the school at its original site in Hawthorne, New York. Harvey was told that it had to abandon the property and leave at the end of the school year in 1959 to allow the state to build a cloverleaf traffic interchange at the convergence of Route 100 and the Taconic and the Saw Mill River parkways. The school had no place to relocate, and the fall term was just a few months away. But coming to the rescue was Frank Weil, who had attended Harvey as a middle schooler before moving on to Phillips Exeter Academy for his upper school education.

Frank, a graduate of Harvard Law School, was working on Wall Street when he learned of Harvey’s urgent need to find a new location. He called it an “injustice“ that the state was forcing the school to move so quickly, on such short notice. He thought his family’s farm would make an ideal site for a school and that donating it would have pleased his father, Sylvan Weil, who was deceased. His mother, Dr. Ruth Alice Norman Weil, an organic chemist, had built a research lab called Hickrill Laboratory on the property, and it was meaningful that the lab would continue on as an educational adjunct to Harvey. Frank stepped up and offered part of his family’s 150-acre Katonah farm, called Hickory Hill, as Harvey’s new home. 

“This was not simply a green field looking for a purpose. It was land and buildings looking for new people to appreciate it and keep it alive with youth,”  Frank once said.

When he accepted his Centennial Award at Homecoming Day 2015, Frank’s great pride in Harvey was clearly evident when he said its longevity and success come from its having  “the essential elements of a great school,” which he said included  “environment, culture and place, consistency of academic leadership, support from parents and graduates, students who want to be educated, and faculty who care and love students.” Recalling his days as a student in Harvey’s Hawthorne campus, Frank once shared that he found self-confidence at Harvey when he received the “Most Improved Student” prize upon graduation. He said he hadn’t given it much thought until he heard a friend of his parents say he had earned the best prize available because “at this age, what kids should be working on is improving.” 

Frank would go on to serve on Harvey’s Board of Trustees from 1961-1977, spending 10 of those years as the chair. He would see one of his sons, Sandison Weil, graduate Harvey in 1976, and later a grandson, Sandison Weil Jr., would attend as well. Frank, who would serve as an honorary school trustee for the rest of his life, was a familiar face at Harvey alumni gatherings throughout the years.

From his days as a student through the years he spent on the Board of Trustees, in both active and honorary capacities, Frank Weil’s connection to Harvey spanned nearly 8 decades. Each October, we rightfully honor our school's founders, Dr. William Carter and his wife Mabel, who in 1916 established the school on their property in Hawthorne, and perhaps it is fair to say that Frank Weil could be considered a kind of second founder for his vital role in seeing that Harvey had a new home in the fall of 1959 after the state took possession of the Hawthorne campus. Who knows what might have become of Harvey without the intercession of Frank and his family!  

The Harvey community will always be appreciative of the investment that Frank and his family made in the school’s past, present, and future.