From 1965 to 1982 he worked at the City University of New York, first as chair of the Hunter College Philosophy Department and from 1967 until 1970 as executive officer of the Ph.D.
From 1974 to 1984 he was board member and chair of the Committee on International Cooperation of the American Philosophical Association.
He was a National Lecturer at the Society of the Sigma Xi in 1975-77 and a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar in 1983-84.
He gave the first Philip Morris Distinguished Lectures in Business and Society, Baruch College, New York, 1986.
They had a daughter, Hilary Caws-Elwitt, and a son, Matthew Caws, lead singer of the band Nada Surf.