Robert A. Weygand (born May 10, 1948) is an American politician. He was a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from 1997 until 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party from

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

Life and career

Weygand was born in

Attleboro, Massachusetts Attleboro is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It was once known as "The Jewelry Capital of the World" for its many jewelry manufacturers. According to the 2020 census, Attleboro had a population of 46,461. Attleboro is ...

, to Charles E. Weygand and Lillian M. (Kingsley) Weygand. He attended St. Raphael Academy for his high school years, attended the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

where he became a member of Theta Chi fraternity. He received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

in 1971, a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1976, a Master of Arts in Political Science in 2009 and a Masters of Public Administration in 2010 all from the University of Rhode Island. A

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

for the Rhode Island Department of Natural Resources from 1973 to 1977, a city planner and landscape architect for an architectural firm from 1977 to 1982, he founded and was president of Weygand, Orchich, & Christie, Inc., an architectural and landscape architectural firm from 1982 to 1993. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1998. In 1991, Weygand, then a state legislator, was offered a $2,000 bribe by then- Pawtucket Mayor Brian J. Sarault. Weygand went to the Rhode Island State Police and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and agreed to deal with the mayor and provide evidence of the bribe. Wearing the listening equipment, Weygand met with Sarault in the mayor's office. After Weygand left, FBI agents burst in and arrested the mayor. The evidence Weygand provided helped send the mayor, several other city officials and private vendors to prison. Weygand served as chairman of the East Providence Planning Board from 1978 to 1984, a member of the

Rhode Island House of Representatives The Rhode Island House of Representatives is the lower house of the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, the upper house being the Rhode Island Senate. It is ...

from 1985 to 1993, and as the 65th

Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island The current lieutenant governor of Rhode Island is Sabina Matos, who was sworn in on April 14, 2021, after Daniel McKee succeeded to the office of governor. The first lieutenant governor was George Brown. In Rhode Island, the lieutenant gov ...

from 1993 to 1997. In 1996, he was elected to an open seat in Congress that was being vacated by incoming Senator Jack Reed. Weygand did not seek re-election to the

in 2000, opting to challenge Republican

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Lincoln Chafee Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a ...

. Weygand, an

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...

Democrat, lost the election to Chafee, who enjoyed popularity among Rhode Island Democrats as one of the most liberal Republicans elected to national office. In 2001, Weygand was appointed President of the New England Board of Higher Education in Boston. In 2004, he stepped down at NEBHE to take a new position as Vice President for Administration at the

. In 2013, Weygand stepped down from the administration to take a faculty position as the director of th
University of Rhode Island MPA program

References and external links

Weygand leaving URI post with $51,707 payment for unused vacation days
providencejournal.com; accessed April 18, 2018.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weygand, Robert 1948 births American landscape architects Lieutenant governors of Rhode Island Living people Democratic Party members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives University of Rhode Island alumni University of Rhode Island faculty Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Rhode Island 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 20th-century members of the Rhode Island General Assembly