Claude Conover worked for 30 years as a commercial designer before turning to ceramics. By the 1960s he was devoting himself full time to his pots. He exhibited in 14 May Shows; all told his work was shown in 47 exhibitions at museums and arts centers around the country, some traveling internationally. Many regional patrons have made these hand-built stoneware pots -most off-white-some rough, some smooth, part of their home environment.

Conover is considered a member of the Cleveland School; a term first coined by Elrick Davis in a 1928 article for the Cleveland Press, titled "Cleveland's Art Pioneers Have Put City in Front Rank in Creative Field."

He was the recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1983.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Claude Conover studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art. After a long career as a commercial designer, he dedicated himself to the ceramic arts at the age of 55. As a fundamentally self-taught ceramicist, Conover hand-built all his vessels and followed a strategic work schedule allowing for a conscious appreciation of form and decoration. The works of Claude Conover are in numerous prominent public and private collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.