Clifton Wharton Jr., barrier-breaking leader in academia and business, dies at 98

Source: Washington Post

Clifton Wharton Jr., barrier-breaking leader in academia and business, dies at 98
He was the first Black president of a predominantly White university and led a Fortune 500 company.


Clifton Wharton Jr. as chancellor-designate of the State University of New York in 1977 with his wife, Dolores. (Jim McKnight/AP)

By Matt Schudel
November 18, 2024 at 8:38 p.m. EST

Clifton R. Wharton Jr., who shattered racial barriers in a multifaceted career in education, international development and business, serving as the first Black president of a major, predominantly White university and later becoming the first person of color to lead a Fortune 500 company, died Nov. 16 at an assisted-living center in Manhattan. He was 98. ... The cause was metastatic cancer, said his son Bruce Wharton.

As the Harvard-educated son of the first African American career diplomat to attain the ranks of minister and ambassador, Dr. Wharton seemed to move easily through the corridors of power. ... Early in his career, as the first Black recipient of a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, he became a leading figure in agricultural and economic development, first in Latin America and later in Asia, where he lived for six years.

In 1969, after years as a prominent foundation executive, he was introduced as the next president of Michigan State University in East Lansing, making his first appearance before 77,000 people at a Spartans football game. ... No Black person had held such a position before, and “people used to stop and stare,” Dr. Wharton later told the New York Times. “Even liberal professors would stare at me.”

After he took office in 1970, anti-Vietnam War protests broke out, as students confronted authorities and attempted to take over campus buildings. Windows were broken, fires were started, and several police officers were injured in violent clashes. ... He wrote in his 2015 memoir, “Privilege and Prejudice,” that there were no protocols for handling massive student protests, so he developed his own. First, he decided that the university’s fundamental principles of free speech and academic expression were sacrosanct.

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By Matt Schudel
Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/11/18/clifton-wharton-dead-obituary-michigan/