Clifton & Dolores Wharton

Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr. was the 14th president of Michigan State University and the first Black president of a major U.S. public research university. His eight-year presidency began in 1970, but the impacts of his leadership and legacy still live on today.  

When Dr. Wharton and his wife Dolores arrived in East Lansing, they brought with them a love and deep appreciation of the arts. Since 1939, the MSU Auditorium was the primary performance venue on campus, and even then, was considered outdated. The MSU Auditorium was originally constructed as a multi-use facility, hosting a range of events from college dances to the Farmers’ Week convention. While useful, this made it slightly less competitive to renowned artists MSU wished to bring to the Mid-Michigan area.  

“We felt very strongly—Dolores in particular—that we needed to have a new facility,” Dr. Wharton said in a 2009 interview with MSU Today. 

Their inspiration and vision moved Dr. Wharton to hire the university’s first development officer and launch MSU’s first major capital campaign, a component of which was devoted to the creation of a performing arts center. The success of the campaign with students, faculty, and administrator organizations led to over $1 million dollars raised.  

While Dr. Wharton left the university in 1978, his vision for the arts lived on. The ground was broken for the performing arts center in 1980, with roughly half of the funds for the project secured.  

During its construction, which took over two years, the MSU Board of Trustees voted to name the center the Clifton and Dolores Wharton Center for Performing Arts. 

“Dolores and I were deeply touched by the board’s action,” Dr. Wharton wrote in his book, Privilege and Prejudice: The Life of a Black Pioneer. “We loved Michigan State and the performing arts. Now, the two strands of our affection were permanently entwined, and the university would have a cultural showcase that could stand proudly with its other centers of excellence.” 

At long last, on September 25, 1982, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and soprano Birgit Nilsson performed on the stage, ushering in a new arts era for the university.  

During the 42 years since Wharton Center’s official opening, Wharton Center has held true to the Wharton’s vision that art and creativity play a vital role in academic excellence and community. Through the embodiment of this belief, Dr. Wharton’s legacy will live on.

Dolores Wharton, the other half of the Wharton Center for Performing Arts namesake, was a trailblazer in every sense.  

A business leader, arts advocate, and the first African American woman to serve on the board of several Fortune 500 companies, she opened doors for countless others while elevating the importance of the arts.   

Her love for the arts began early. Born in New York City, she studied dance with Martha Graham and theater at the Neighborhood Playhouse Conservatory.  In 1950, Dolores wed Clifton R. Wharton Jr., who would serve as MSU’s president from 1970 to 1978. Their union was one of love and shared aspirations. They raised two sons, Bruce Wharton and Clifton R. Wharton III, and charted paths that broke barriers and championed social justice.  

As MSU’s first lady, Dolores pursued her passion by celebrating Spartan artists. “I find the art being produced by the faculty to be extremely provocative. It has given me richer insights into the university and certainly a deeper appreciation,” she said. Perhaps her most significant achievement at MSU was the replacement, in partnership with her husband, of the old MSU Auditorium with an expanded performing arts center in 1982. “We felt very strongly — Dolores in particular — that we needed to have a new facility,” Clifton Wharton said in a 2009 interview. Named Wharton Center for Performing Arts in their honor, it stands today as the primary performance venue at MSU as well as a valued cultural resource for the Greater Lansing community. 

Her leadership and generosity helped bring Wharton Center to life, creating a space where world-class performance, arts education, and community engagement flourish. In an August 2017 article, Mrs. Wharton reflected:   

“Michigan State University offered me an opportunity to further share my joy of living with the arts. I had no premeditated design to build a new initiative for arts activities on campus. Quite the contrary. My interest served to heighten the presence of arts activities already being practiced within the local community. I began by providing a rotating hanging of selected faculty art in Cowles House to provide exposure to the university and its wider community. But my most significant activity was being able to participate in the planning and fundraising activities.”   

Appointments by President Gerald Ford to the National Council of the National Endowment for the Arts and by Michigan Gov. William Milliken to the Michigan Council for the Arts further highlighted her passionate role in the arts community. Her trusteeships at the Museum of Modern Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Albany Institute of History and Art are testament to her enduring advocacy and impact. 

Dolores and Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr.’s legacy lives on through their shared vision that art and creativity play a vital role in academic excellence and community.  

"Clif and I came to East Lansing, and through those years we discovered a world, a world for us, that was larger; it was richer, it was warmer. Michigan State will always be a part of what we are, and we are deeply moved by your generosity in allowing us to remain a part of you."  

-Dolores Wharton, Wharton Center for Performing Arts Opening Concert