August 11, 1925 - January 5, 2020
Designer of the Corwin Getaway Automobile
Cliff worked on a long-term dream of his to design and build a car. It was a car not only of unique configuration and size, but a car to be built with Black hands in the Black community. Cliff had made pinewood derby cars for his own children, but this project was to be the full scale car, the Corwin, whose features predated what was to become a burgeoning market for small sporty cars that included the Ford Mustang and the Chrysler Barracuda.
Cliff worked on this project as any Hollywood producers might. He sought investors and promoters, and talented designers and fabricators for his project. Louis Corwin, importer of Panasonic electronic products, was his initial source of funding for the project. Cliff raised additional funds, signed investors, developed promoters, and elicited support from Hollywood celebrities. He recruited talented students from Art Center College who eventually became designers of Detroit-built automobiles. If Cliff were in the movie business, he'd have been called a producer.
The prototype of the Corwin Getaway now resides at the Petersen Automotive Museum.
More information about the design of the Corwin (1965-1969): https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2018/10/09/corwin-getaway-restoration