Dennis W. Weatherby was an inventor and scientist who led the team that developed the chemical formula for what is now known as lemon-scented Cascade Dishwashing Detergent. Weatherby was born in Brighton, Alabama on December 4, 1959, and later earned a football scholarship to Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, one of the first colleges in the United States to be administered by African Americans.

After graduation, he took a job at Proctor and Gamble (P&G) where he was asked to lead a team to create a new version of dishwashing detergent, a consumer product that P&G had marketed since 1955. The existing product contained a pigment that stained both dishes and dishwashers.

At the age of 27, Weatherby made a major breakthrough, and along with co-developer Brian J. Roselle, he and his team developed a solution that did not stain dishes. On December 22, 1987, Weatherby received U.S. patent no. 4,714,562 for “automatic dishwasher detergent composition.” That solution still serves as the basic formula behind all lemon-scented cleaning products that contain bleach.