Clifton R Wharton Jr

Michigan State University's fourteenth President, Clifton R. Wharton, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 13, 1926. Wharton's father served as a career diplomat in the United States Foreign Service for forty years. At the age of sixteen, Wharton entered Harvard University and graduated in 1947 with a BA in history. He received a Masters Degree in the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in 1948. After working five years at the American Institute of International Social Development, Wharton earned MA and PhD degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. In 1957, he joined the Agricultural Development Council, a Rockefeller Family Foundation. As a council associate stationed in Malaysia, Wharton directed programs in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. He also taught and conducted research as a visiting professor at the Universities of Malaysia and Singapore. Wharton later became Vice President of the Council, a position he held until his accession the presidency of MSU in January 1970. Wharton resigned from Michigan State University in December 1977 to accept the Chancellorship of the State University of New York. He subsequently took a position as Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF from 1987- 1993 and served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton in 1993. Wharton died of cancer at 98 on Saturday November 17 2024 in Manhattan. He is survived by his wife of 74 years, Dolores, and his son Bruce, who confirmed the death. His son Clifton III died of a brain embolism in 2000 at age 48.