College president, business executive

Clifton Wharton Jr. decided not to follow his father’s footsteps into foreign service but rather to pursue careers in foreign economic development, higher education, and business. Wharton worked with philanthropic organizations focused on economic and human resource development in Latin America and Asia. Later, he served as president of Michigan State University and then as chancellor of the State University of New York. He directed the largest U.S. pension system, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and the College Retirement Equities Fund, and served briefly as United States deputy secretary of state. Writers often note his impressive list of “firsts” for African Americans.

Clifton Reginald Wharton, Jr., born September 13, 1926, in Boston, Massachusetts, spent most of his first six years in Spain’s Canary Islands, where his father served as U. S. consul. The elder Wharton, a lawyer and the first African American to pass the U. S. foreign service exam, became the country’s first black career ambassador. Based in Romania and Norway, he retired in 1964 after serving forty years. His wife, Harriet Banks Wharton, gave birth to four children; Clifton Jr. and a brother were born in the United States, and a sister and another brother were born in Spain. A chemistry professor and social worker, she served as teacher for her children.

In 1950, Wharton Jr. married Dolores Duncan of New York City. They met during his sophomore year at Harvard University on a blind date arranged by one of Dolores’s cousins. Dolores Wharton founded and presided over the Fund for Corporate Initiatives, Inc., a nonprofit organization created to enhance the situation of women and minorities in corporate America. Among many other positions, she served on the boards of Phillips Petroleum, Kellogg, and Gannett companies. The Whartons had two sons, Clifton III and Bruce.

The early experience of Wharton Jr. in the Canary Islands prepared him for learning cultures and languages. In the absence of U.S. schools, his mother used books from a Baltimore correspondence school to begin his education. Wharton learned Spanish along with English, and his mother frequently took him to a local French school run by white Russians, where he learned French, as well.

When he was old enough, his parents took him to Massachusetts to attend the prestigious Boston Latin School, the first U.S. public school noted for its excellence in education. He lived with his maternal grandmother and worked at the local spool factory. During his free time, he trained for the track team.

At sixteen, Wharton enrolled in Harvard University. He became the college radio station’s first African American voice and founded the National Student Association, a lobbying group for college students. A strong performer on the track team, he abandoned the sport during his junior year because of an injury. In later years, a classmate described Wharton to David Bird as “well-heeled, well-bred, well-educated—a very bright guy, a very classy guy, and self-assured always.” Wharton briefly trained as an Air Force pilot in Tuskegee, Alabama. He soloed in single engine planes, but before he earned his wings, the war ended.

In an interview years later with Black Issues in Higher Education , Wharton offered the following advice to college students: “This is one of the few times in your life when you have available to you this incredible range of extracurricular activities. Sample the ones that you think you might be interested in, because you may discover a hidden talent or hidden interest that you didn’t realize you had.” Wharton’s college experience sparked his own interests.

Wharton received his BA. in history, cum laude, from Harvard in 1947. In the commencement address, Secretary of State George C. Marshall emphasized the U.S. commitment to European recovery. He outlined a plan for achieving that goal that became known as the European Recovery Plan—or, more widely, the Marshall Plan. The address impressed young Wharton, inspiring him to focus his career on international economic development. He had considered following his father’s distinguished record in foreign service but chose now to establish his own path.

In 1948, Wharton earned an M.A. in international affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, setting another first for blacks. Realizing his position as a role model, he worked extremely hard, foregoing many extracurricular activities. He finished second in his class despite his status as the youngest student.