Robert Louis Payton (August 23, 1926, South Bend, Indiana - May 19, 2011, Scottsdale, Arizona) was a jazz musician, writer and editor, president of two universities; (Hofstra University and C.W. Post College), a State Department official, and ambassador to the African republic of Cameroon. He also served as a founding trustee of Editorial Projects in Education, the organization that helped start The Chronicle of Higher Education. He was the first full-time director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.