Feb 08, 2021
For Bobby Mayweather, it remains his proudest achievement: “organizing Capital Region Office.”
“We were family, and I was the father of the family. We had a cohesive group,” Mayweather said. Now retired from LDEQ, the 68-year-old Mayweather was the first black person to serve as manager of one of the agency’s regional offices (there are six around the state). Mayweather, a chemist by training, was working in an agency lab in 2000 when LDEQ decided to realign the way the eight regional offices were organized. Each regional office would be headed by a Regional Manager. Mayweather was picked to head the Capital Regional Office. The Capital Region includes a big swath of southeastern and south-central Louisiana, including Ascension, Assumption, East and West Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, St. Martin and Tangipahoa parishes.
The newly minted Regional Manager found himself with a lot of ground to cover. “We went to every city in our region – met the mayor and environmental people,” Mayweather said. Even if the municipality had only just recently incorporated, it got a visit, he said. “We made a presentation,” Mayweather said. And the message of that presentation? “How can we help you?”
As a black man in a high profile government job, Mayweather said he drew a lot of attention and that led to requests for him to speak.
“There was a lot of interest in me,” Mayweather said. He had a consistent message he delivered to groups he addressed. “I just told them that we were there for them and that we would like to have more people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math),” he said.
Mayweather holds a degree in chemistry from Southern University. He began his studies at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, almost finished there, but then his mother got sick and he came back to his hometown of Baton Rouge and finished his degree at Southern. He spent much of his early career working in labs. Later, he went back to Southern and got a degree in environmental science.
Baton Rouge and Louisiana have always been home for Mayweather, but he did spend time early in his career working in places such as Philadelphia, New Jersey, Salt Lake City and Atlanta. He considered relocating to Pennsylvania, but his wife, Delores, wanted to stay near her parents in Louisiana.
“We wanted to settle back home,” Mayweather said. He has taught chemistry at Southern and Baton Rouge Community College. “I was the first adjunct chemistry teacher at BRCC,” Mayweather said. “I was an adjunct professor at BRCC when I came to LDEQ. I was the night guy,” he said. “About four years ago, it got too much for me. I was too old to do both things.”
These days Mayweather finds plenty to stay busy with since his retirement from LDEQ in 2019. His wife has plenty of things for him to do, there’s church and, oh yes, two grandbabies to spoil. He won’t sit still too long. There’s still ground to break.