Dr. Clifford R. Wharton Jr - is an American university president, corporate executive and former United States Deputy Secretary of State. In his multiple careers, he has been an African-American pioneer. On October 26, 1977, Dr. Wharton was named chancellor of the State University of New York. Again he was identified as the first African-American to head the largest university system in the nation. During his nine-year tenure, he achieved greater management flexibility for the university, strengthened the university's research capability, and dramatically improved the quality image of the university. SUNY Chairman Donald M. Blinken stated that Wharton's most enduring achievement was the Independent Commission and the flexibility legislation.
Wharton is, as of 2016, a member and former co-chairman of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and is a trustee of the Clark Foundation, Bassett Hospital, and the American Assembly. He served as chairman of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, 1981–82, and received the President's Award on World Hunger in 1983. In 1994 he received the American Council on Education Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2005 the John Hope Franklin Award. In 2015 his name was placed on the frieze of Boston Latin School's Assembly Hall.

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Reporters and profiles have regularly described Wharton "Such has been the life of Clifton Wharton, whose career in higher education and business, foreign economic development, and philanthropy has included so many firsts – often without much fanfare—that he is sometimes called "the quiet pioneer. In the course of his career, Wharton had become a black member of the establishment rather than a member of the black establishment.