CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Bob Clement

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ887852 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Nelson Clement (born September 23, 1943) is an American politician and academic administrator. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 5th congressional district from 1988 until 2003.

The son of Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement, Clement had served on the board of directors at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and as president of Cumberland University before entering Congress. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the Tennessee Public Service Commission. Clement retired from the House to mount an unsuccessful candidacy for the United States Senate in 2002.

Early life and education

Clement is the son of former Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement. During his father's third run for governor in 1962, he joined his father on the campaign trail, often making speeches when his father developed throat trouble.

Clement graduated from Hillsboro High School in Nashville. He went on to attend the University of Tennessee graduating in 1967. He served in the National Guard from 1969 to 1971 and also served in the reserves until 2001, retiring as a colonel.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bob Clement” as american politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1943, 1988, 2003, 2002—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1943-09-23. The account is most persuasive where Clement, American and politician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q887852. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1988, 2003 and 2002.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Clement”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bob Clement primary sources, Bob Clement archive and Clement research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Clement”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bob Clement” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.