Letter from Chip Northrup

Whartons Were Role Models

Dr. Clifton Wharton Jr. and his wife, Dolores Wharton, who died June 7th, were the two most accomplished people I have ever known. And I have known popes and presidents.

In their retirement, they were summer residents of Cooperstown. Clif was a WWII fighter pilot, PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, CEO of SUNY, TIAA, Rockefeller Foundation, and Michigan State. Dolores was equally accomplished.

Unfortunately, their accomplishments did not shield them from the on-going cultural cancer of racism in America. Years ago, I asked Dr. Wharton to dinner at the Harvard Club in New York. He declined. Decades before, he had been denied admission because of his race, even though he was a member of the Harvard Club, Boston, and had recently retired as the under secretary of state.

Both he and Dolores got snubbed socially, including right here in Cooperstown. They were not invited to some of the “right parties” (a double-entendre) and some of the “right” (there’s that word again) Cooperstonians refused to attend parties with them.

Dr. Wharton died a few days after America re-elected a racist Republican president. His widow, Dolores, survived him long enough to see the renaming of major federal facilities in honor of Confederate generals by a Republican administration steeped in corruption, vainglory and incompetence. Everything the Whartons were not. They were positive role models for all Americans, the antithesis of the current occupant of the White House and his cable news sycophants.

In Texas, in my youth, when I boarded a city bus, a Black passenger was obligated to give up their seat to me, a la Rosa Parks. There were two water fountains at the county courthouse, one for whites, one for “colored”—including Mexicans. I know where this racial animus comes from. I assure you, it’s not about “making America great again.” And I know where it’s going. Back into the trash can of history. Starting with the midterms.

It’s comforting to be on the right side of history this time around. I owe it to the Whartons. If you ever wondered what you would have done in Germany in 1936, now’s your chance to find out. Don’t chicken out.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown