Robert Clement was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 23, 1944. Clement graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1967. He was the president of Cumberland College from 1983 to 1987.
In 1979 U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed Clement to the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He stepped down from this position in 1981. In 1982 Clement announced his candidacy for the Unites States House of Representatives. He lost the general campaign to Donald Sundquist. Taylor was elected to the United States House of Representatives in a special election in 1988. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate when he lost to Lamar Alexander in 2002.
Clements papers are stored in approximately 10 linear feet of boxes.