Philander P. Claxton Jr. was born in Washington, DC, and received his undergraduate degree from UT in 1934. He also received a master’s degree from Princeton University and was a 1938 graduate of Yale Law School. He was a long-time state department official, advising secretaries of state on population control, including the United Nations World Population Conference held in Bucharest, Romania, in 1974. From 1978 to 1988, he was a consultant to the Futures Group in Washington on several projects involving the US Agency for International Development. His work analyzed population as it figured into social and economic factors in foreign countries. In 1998 UT presented him a founders’ medal at charter day activities.