’60 Minutes’ Producer Adrian ‘Clem’ Taylor Dead at 60

Journalist won a Peabody Award and eight Emmys

Television news producer Adrian “Clem” Taylor died Friday following a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 60.

Taylor recently won a Peabody and an Emmy (one of eight in his career) for a May 2013 “60 Minutes” segment, “Joy in the Congo,” about the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra in war-torn Kinshasa in the Congo. Taylor died at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark today, not far from his home in Montclair, N.J.

“Clem was a wonderful man, a great friend to so many of us, and a world-class producer,” said Jeff Fager, “60 Minutes” executive producer and chairman, CBS News.

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“He was the most curious and well-read man I’ve ever known” added Bill Owens, “60 Minutes” executive editor, who also worked alongside Taylor earlier in his CBS News career in Washington. “Anyone who ever met Clem remembered him well.”

Taylor spent nearly 20 years at CBS News, the last four with “60 Minutes.” He held a variety of producing jobs in the news division, rising to senior producer for “The Early Show” in the late 1990s. Before that, he served as a producer in Washington, Dallas, and New York.

He covered the White House during the Reagan administration. Taylor also worked for a decade at ABC News, where he produced reports for “Primetime Live,” “20/20,” and the broadcast “What Would You Do?” He previously produced for Fox News, CNBC and ESPN.

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Taylor is survived by his wife Hilary, their daughter Lila, and his son from a previous marriage, Adrian “Billy” Taylor. He is also survived by his mother Nancy, father Adrian, brother Brian, and sister Deidre.

A service will be held for the veteran broadcaster at Temple Ner Tamid, 936 Broad Street, Bloomfield, N.J. at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 23.

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