Dr. Bobby Fletcher serves as Director of the Division of Weights and Measures with
the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. This Division regulates commerce
and trade throughout the state, ensuring that equity prevails for both buyers and
sellers by inspecting over 100,000 commercial weighing, measuring, metering and scanning
devices. Originally from Covington, LA, Bobby was very involved in 4H as a child and
originally pursued a degree in Animal Science. He graduated from with a B.A. in Agri
Business and credits Southeastern as broadening his horizons. Bobby currently resides
in Baton Rouge.
Wilson Hall was where the agriculture department was housed and Dr. A.D. Owings was
the department head at the time. Many of the ag students would hang out there to study,
take classes as well as develop relationships plus plan ag related events. I spent
many hours and made many very good friends in that building through our classes, studying
as well as preparing for the annual rodeo at Cefalu coliseum. I remember watching
the Harlem Globetrotters play there when I was in junior high school.
I remember getting a HiHo BBQ sandwich and a root beer supported by BBQ potato chips
at the old location at the corner of Morrison Blvd. and West Thomas. Miss Celeste
was the server there and the sandwiches were 75 cents each. I spent many a day at
HiHo enjoying their BBQ sandwiches, beef with cheese, extra sauce please!
It is hard to name just one so I will name a few: Dr. Wascom taught botany and he
really liked us Ag students for some reason. He was always mentioning us in class
and made us feel at home.
Dr. James Dunn taught Animal Husbandry and Genetics in the Ag Department and he was
such a cool guy. He was a University of Georgia graduate and we both showed pigs in
4-H/FFA in our younger years. He was always supportive of our academic as well as
outside school activities that we participated in.
Dr. A.D Owings was our agriculture department head and he taught me agriculture economics
and crop production. I remember walking down to railroad tracks in Hammond looking
for grain crops growing that had leaked out of railroad cars. That was the first time
I recall seeing wheat and rice growing since we did not grow those crops in southeast
Louisiana. He was a very patient professor and truly cared about his students as well
as the agriculture department at SLU!
I feel it is all about the relationships you make throughout college and beyond and
Southeastern helped me in that arena for sure. I am still connected to several of
my classmates and worked with numerous during my Land Grant tenure. I met many in
my agriculture-based classes at Wilson Hall and was able to expand and enhance my
speaking ability in all my marketing classes that required a presentation in each
class. Those were tough but they helped me overcome a fear of speaking in public for
sure. The latter has helped me almost every day throughout my career whether it was
translating research based information to layman’s terms for clientele or doing radio
and tv programs.
I feel that the personal as well as academic lessons that I learned at Southeastern
have really supported my success in my professional career. The relationships that
were developed there have helped me for nearly 35 years and I continue to communicate
with my classmates through my field of work and beyond.
My advice would be to have a genuine and driven work ethic but do your best to maintain
a good personal and professional balance. Having what I call “grit” and striving to
pay your dues will go a long way in navigating through a career as well as developing
trust and confidence from those whom you work with. I can train someone on how to
do the job but I will take grit and determination when onboarding new employees. Grit
and determination cannot be taught and are inherent traits that are required for success!
I love the outdoors, gardening, spending time at the camp and getting away from the
rat race with family and or friends. Taking some time each day to connect on a spiritual
level is also very important. Trying to keep out as much clutter from your mind and
day is something that I find enjoyable as well as helpful.
I am somewhat of a locavore and love growing fruits and vegetables in a moderate sized
garden and orchard for home consumption as well as sourcing other produce and protein
from local producers. I also end up bartering some of the local products for other
items as well. Bartering is the new buying and I think it is here to stay!
