He was a vice chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and served as special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Administration in 1966‐67.

[6] Payton was editor of the Burlington Herald, the National Real Estate Journal, and the Washington University Magazine.

[10] His tenure was not without a fair share of mishaps, including salary freezes that were incurred and also the halting of a planned library at the Brooklyn campus.

[11] Additionally, a dispute with campus radio station WCWP for allegedly reading pornographic material live on air would culminate in a 45 day sit-in by students.

After former president and then-chancellor Clifford Lee Lord had gone to the Hudson Institute, chancellors were phased out of the university and Payton had only the board of trustees to deal with.

[21][22] After his resignation from Hofstra, Payton wrote an article in the New York Times stating what plans should be put in action for higher education to survive.

Those included possible merger scenarios, fundraising and endowment increasing efforts, facility reallocation, and gaining more research opportunities from government and business partnerships.