Former Scarsdale Bowl Recipient Robert November Passes Away While Abroad

Robert and Eleanor NovemberHitchcock Church reports that former Scarsdale resident and Scarsdale Bowl winner Robert November passed away at age 89 on July 23, 2025 while on a trip abroad. Robert was preceded in death by his wife, Eleanor in 2019. Together they were the recipients of the Scarsdale Bowl in in 2001.

November was a dedicated community volunteer who served on the Scarsdale School Board for six years, the final year, 1990-91 as Board President. He was a trustee of the Scarsdale Library, and was the President of the Friends of Scarsdale Parks. He was chair of the Advisory Council on Environmental Conservation and served on the Greenacres Association.

Robert and Eleanor were longtime residents of Walworth Avenue in Greenacres where they were well known for their annual Kentucky Derby Party, where guests donned festive hats and drank mint juleps.

Here are remarks about the Novembers from the 2001 Scarsdale Bowl Dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains on April 26, 2001.

Looking for a Westchester home in 1971, Eleanor and Robert November sought a community with good schools, where people work together on solving problems, and where they would feel comfortable as a mixed faith couple. Scarsdale provided such a milieu.

For three decades, the Novembers have been unstinting in their commitment to serving the people and organizations of the community they live in.

Robert November has provided distinguished, service in his leadership and supporting roles. His 1990-91 presidency and previous five years on the Board of Education is a good example. The Scarsdale Inquirer said, "In his six years on the Board,...he has made a name for himself as a cool hand under fire and a business- savvy manager who knows how to run a meeting...But it is in this official's simple love for the job, and his unusual ability to lead by listening, that we feel the November legacy will most aptly reside."

Robert recalls with satisfaction the hiring of Richard Hibschman, a worthy successor to superintendent Thomas Sobol; tackling facilities problems, such as resolving the windows replacement issue; establishing mechanisms to involve the community at every stage of decision-making during the 1990's on major capital improvements and later voter-approved bond issues.

Now on the Library Board of Trustees, Robert's professional knowledge of publishing and automated information services, his business management skills, his ability to put issues into context, and his humor have contributed to the board's operations. He recently served as treasurer, and formerly president, of the Friends of the Scarsdale Parks and belongs to the TVCC. Beyond the community, he is treasurer and board member of the Deer Hill Conference Center used by many Westchester religious and school groups.

As chairman of the then United Way of Scarsdale, Robert was instrumental in hiring Executive Director Florence David whose effective work has been vital to the agency's success. As chair of the Advisory Council on Environmental Conservation, he was helpful in obtaining feedback and understanding from gardeners, facilitating enactment of the Leaf Blower ordinance. During his tenure the council surveyed all of Scarsdale street trees and recommended a conservation and maintenance plan.

Robert has been member of the Advisory Committee on Downtown Development, director of the Scarsdale Adult School, and past /current director of the Greenacres Association, for which he headed and coached some of the baseball and soccer programs, and treasurer of the Greenacres PTA.

Robert and Eleanor are committed to promoting understanding and respect of different faiths in the community. An example, one of many, has been the occasional interpretive model Jewish seders conducted by Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Westchester Reform Temple (to which Robert belongs) at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church (Eleanor's church) with the cooperation of Rev. Donald Steele.

Professionally, Robert spent 25 years at the New York Times, as vice president/group director for News and Information Services. Later he was an information services executive with American Bond Buyer, McGraw-Hill's F.W. Dodge Division and Burrelle's Information Services. Long involved with development of online information services and electronic publishing, he was chairman of the Information Industry Association, that field's national trade organization.

Born in Brooklyn, he grew up in Great Neck, Long Island and received a B.A. from Harvard College. Currently, he is a master's degree candidate in urban education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.