Clover was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, son of Lewis Peter Clover and Sarah Ann Ackerman Clover. His father was an artist who later became an Episcopal minister, serving congregations in Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York. Richardson Clover was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from Missouri in July 1863 and graduated in 1867. His first posting was to the frigate Susquehanna.^[1][2]

Clover had a varied career in the service including several hydrographic assignments. He served on the Coast Survey steamer Hassler on the Pacific coast 1874–77, and had a brief assignment to the Naval Hydrographic Office. He was again assigned to the Coast Survey in 1881, first in the Washington office and then commanding the schooner Palinurus surveying Long Island Sound. He supervised construction of the steamer Carlile P. Patterson and became her first commander. Under Clover, the Patterson sailed to California by way of the Straits of Magellan and subsequently made surveys in southeastern Alaska in 1885, covering the north shore of Dixon Entrance (except for Cordova Bay), and Clarence Strait as far north as Union Bay. He remained in charge of the Patterson and the Southeast Alaska survey until he was relieved by A.S Snow in March 1886.^{[1][3][4][5][6][7][n 1]}

Following a year's leave accompanying his marriage, Clover was posted to the torpedo station at Newport and then attended the Naval War College from September 1887 until January 1888. Subsequently, he was posted as navigator on the Pensacola, then as executive officer on the Dolphin from December 1888 to December 1889. During this period Dolphin completed her round-the-world cruise.^[1][3]

He returned to the Hydrographic Office in 1889. He became acting hydrographer in September 1890 and was formally appointed hydrographer (i.e. head of the office) in May 1891, accompanying his appointment as lieutenant commander. In 1890 Clover was named by President Benjamin Harrison in Executive Order No. 28 as a member of the newly created Board on Geographic Names, where he served as secretary of the board under Thomas Mendenhall, the first chairman of the Board on Geographic Names. He continued as Hydrographer until 1893.^{[1][3][11][12][13]}

Clover served on the Phythian Board on the reorganization of the Navy. Subsequently, he was posted to the cruiser Chicago, serving as executive officer under Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, author of The Influence of Sea Power upon History. In December 1895, he was appointed to the Board revising Naval Regulations. Subsequently, he commanded the Dolphin in 1896-7.^{[1][3][14][15]}

Clover was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer of the Office of Naval Intelligence from November 1897 to May 1898 and then again from October 1898 to February 1900. While on his first term as Chief Intelligence Officer, then-Cmdr. Clover was also member of the War and Strategy Board established by the Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to provide him with operational and strategic advice. Also on that board was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. In the period leading up to the Spanish–American War, Clover organized intelligence-gathering efforts to establish the location, condition, and order of battle of the Spanish naval forces. These efforts included espionage as well as the more usual compilation of information from open and diplomatic channels. However, when the war started, Clover left his position to take an active combat position as commanding officer of the gunboat Bancroft from May to September 1898.^{[1][3][16][17][18]}

After his stint on the Bancroft Clover resumed his duties as Chief Intelligence Officer until February 1900, then was reassigned as the Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London from April 1900 to June 1903 He was promoted to captain on April 11, 1902. After a short hiatus at home he became the commanding officer of the battleship Wisconsin from January 1904 to December 1905, while for most of this time also serving as Chief-of-Staff of the Asiatic Fleet. Then after a one-year hiatus he became a member, then the president of the Board of Inspection and Survey from February 1907 to July 1908, during which he was promoted to rear admiral. He retired on July 11, 1908.^{[1][3][16][19][20][21]}

Clover died on October 14, 1919, aboard a Union Pacific train, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming^[22] while en route from San Francisco, California to Washington, D.C.^[21] He is buried with his wife in Arlington National Cemetery.

Clover was married on May 19, 1886, to Mary Eudora Miller. She was the daughter of Senator John F. Miller from California, the wealthy former head of the Alaska Commercial Company. Clover named Dora Bay, Miller Lake, and Mt. Eudora in Alaska, presumably for her, in 1885.^[6][23] The Clovers had two daughters, Beatrice Miller Clover and Mary Eudora Miller Clover. Beatrice married Thomas Holcomb, who served as Commandant of the United States Marine Corps during the early part of World War II.^[24] Mary Eudora Miller Clover never married and died October 11, 1954, in San Francisco.^[25]

Clover Bay and Clover Passage in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, are named for him. Clover Deep, an undersea valley at 37N, 137 W off the coast of California, was named for him in 1895. The name changed to Glover Deep as the result of a transcription error, and neither name is in current use.^[6][26]

• The Rise and Fall of American Naval Intelligence, 1882–1917 Mark Russell Shulman Intelligence and National Security 8 (2) 214–226, 1993. Posted on author's web site.
• Waiting for dead men's shoes: origins and development of the U.S. Navy's officer personnel system, 1793–1941 Donald Chisholm; includes coverage of the Phythian Board of 1891 dealing with imbalances of officer numbers and the Navy career path. Lists Clover as "Richardson Glover". Explains what the Phythian Board was trying to accomplish, and the results of their report.
• Congressional Serial Set Congressional Serial Set Clover's reports – operations of USS Bancroft during Spanish–American War.