Mary Cornelia Weil

On January 24, Mary Cornelia Spinks Weil, 75, died in hospice care in Pike Creek, Delaware.

Weil was a more than 50-year resident of Newark, Delaware. She worked in public relations for the University of Delaware for 24 years, retiring as managing editor of the University of Delaware Messenger in 2008.

During her tenure as editor at the Messenger, the publication won several awards, including a first place award from the National Federation of Press Women in 1997 and the International Association of Business Communicators First State Award in 1997 and 2001.

Weil obtained her degree in Journalism and Biology from University of Oregon in 1964 and began a nearly 44-year career as a journalist, editor and science and technology writer. Previously attending the University of Texas, she wrote for the Daily Texan, counting such luminaries as Deborah Howell and Kaye Northcott as her contemporaries. She later wrote for the Eugene Register Guard, the Lane County Weekly and University of Delaware Update.

Her mordant wit was well suited for the newsroom. She was among the pioneer women of mid-1960s journalism, demanding the right to cover general news, as well as writing for the women’s section. Once she received the general news beat, she covered, among other things, women’s contributions in fields ranging from funny car racing to genetic research.

The daughter of William Brian Spinks and Mary McGarvey Spinks, Weil was a native of Houston, Texas. She attended Bellaire High School and was a Bellaire Belle.

An avid reader of mystery and crime novels, Weil was never seen without one (or two) books in hand. She relished the weekly arrival of the New Yorker magazine, which she regarded as the last bastion of good long-form journalism, often reading the entire magazine in one sitting. With her husband Peter, an anthropologist and scholar of African art and ritual at the University of Delaware, she was an antique typewriter collector and enthusiastic quilter.

Weil is survived by her husband Peter; her two sons, Paul, and his wife Wai Yee Chan, and Chris, and his wife Danielle Veith; and her two grandchildren, Ella and Milo.

A memorial service will be held at Bayard Sharp Hall ” at 23 S. Main Street, Newark, DE 19711 ” on Tuesday, January 30 at 3pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family ask that donations be sent to Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense inAmerica (https://give.momsdemandaction.org/team/151130) or the Elephant Sanctuary(https://shop.elephants.com/).