It’s not like Earl was a slacker. He came to Detroit from Hollywood, where he was designing cars for movie stars. As General Motors’ top designer, Earl created iconic cars with unique, sweeping lines and features like tail fins and wraparound windshields.
“It’s uncanny how he embodied the words ‘pioneer’ and ‘trailblazer,'” Earl’s grandson Richard Earl said on the phone last week from his home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Harley Earl was the first car designer to allow regular folks to get their hands on a work of art. He allowed you to step into the equivalent of a Rembrandt, drive it away and then show it off.”
During his heyday spanning the 1930s to the late ’50s, Earl created innovations that were decades ahead of their time:
-Rear backup cameras connected to dashboard video
-An automated driving system
-Collision warning alarms
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Full circle
In 2007, Harley Earl paid a visit to his grandson.
Well, sort of.
Richard Earl reunited with his late grandfather’s 1963 blue Sting Ray at a car show, where he got a chance to relive that birthday cruise.
As Richard steered the roadster through its paces, his mind returned to that day, exactly 40 years earlier. “The story had come full circle,” Richard said.
He remembered his grandfather’s rare demonstrations of affection as they exited the car — tousling Richard’s hair, then, a warm embrace.
“I think he really was trying to be a good grandfather,” Earl said. “Maybe that wasn’t the easiest thing for him most of his life, because he had worked so hard. But we had a moment — it was one of those moments you treasure.”
