Roger Taylor was the 18th president of Knox College, a nationally ranked liberal arts college located in Galesburg, Illinois. A native of Fulton County, Illinois, Taylor is a 1959 graduate of Cuba High School. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Knox College in 1963, and then served in the United States Navy for three and one-half years, including a year in Vietnam, before entering law Northwestern University School of Law in 1968. He graduated with honors from Northwestern in 1971 and served as an editor of the law review. After law school, he practiced law at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, ultimately becoming partner with the international firm. Taylor joined the Knox College Board of Trustees in 1998 and served as its chair from 1999-2001. He became interim president in 2001, after the departure of Knox's 17th president, Richard Millman, and was officially installed as president of Knox College in October 2002. He served in that role until retiring in 2011.
His wife, Anne Zweifel Taylor, is a 1963 alumna of Knox.