Ross B. Cousins

Cousins, Mr. B. Ross
Kalamazoo, Michigan Died Thursday morning, June 10, 2010. Ross was born March 25, 1916 in Toronto, Canada, the son of Garnet and Eva Dell Cousins. The family moved to Detroit in 1926 when his father came to work as a commercial artist on the Packard advertising account. He attended Cass Technical High School, graduating in 1935. After working for a few years for a printing company and an advertising agency, he joined Ford Motor Company in 1938 in the design department as a commercial illustrator. He worked with Edsel Ford and Chief Designer, E.T. Gregorie on the development of the Lincoln-Zephyr and Lincoln Continental. In 1946 he left Ford to work for La Driere Studios, a leading Detroit advertising agency. Ross worked mainly on the Cadillac account preparing renderings of the cars for catalogs and newspaper ads. In the late '60's, he became a freelance artist and illustrated packages for Lionel trains as well as Star Wars model kits. He worked with retired Chrysler Chief Designer, Virgil Exner as the primary illustrator on a revival of the Duesenberg automobile. He retired from commercial art in 1983 and pursued a lifelong interest in fine art. He studied on his own and at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Association with such noted artists as Richard Kozlow and Robert Wilbert. He lived in Detroit until 1955 when he moved to Bloomfield Hills, MI. He moved from there to Portage, MI in 1988. In addition to winning the Detroit Art Directors gold medal in 1954 he received recognition later in life. In 2005 a calendar of his renderings was produced by Portage Printing. In the same year, he appeared in a show, "Drawing Power" presented by the Detroit Public Library's Automotive Collection. In 2007 he was honored by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts with a one man show of his automotive illustrations, "The Car as Art". He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 70 years, Helen I. Palmer Cousins on February 24, 2008; a half brother, Donald Cousins; a half sister, Minnie Town. He is survived by a son, Garnet Ross Joan Cousins; a daughter, Nancy Michael Payne of Kalamazoo; his only grandson, Bennett R. Cousins of Chicago, IL; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held 12 noon, Thursday, June 17th at the First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo, 129 S. Park St. Visitation will be at 11:00, one hour prior to the service. Private interment will be in Central Portage Cemetery. Memorials may be direct to the First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo Music Fund, Alzheimer's Association, or Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan.