Ed Welburn, who grew up in Berwyn and Malvern and spent 44 years designing vehicles, is known as the man who brought beauty back to General Motors cars, reports Michelle Miller for CBS News.

Welburn rose through the ranks during his more than four decades with the carmaker to become General Motors’ first head of global design, a role that he served from 2003 to 2016. He first started there during a college internship in 1971 and became the first Black American hired at GM one year later.

During his time at the company, he supervised the design of many award-winning cars. He worked on everything from the Chevy Camaro to the Cadillac Escalade. While he may now be retired, he is still driven.

“I’m told I worked on over 540 different car brands,” said Welburn.

For him, every car has a different mission.

“They are almost like actors in a movie,” he said.

With his history, it is no wonder that he is a great car aficionado who currently owns three Corvettes – two of which are prominently featured at his home office. Today, Welburn is back at the drawing board, but this time, he’s designing shoes. His designs are sleek, and he credits his “automotive inspiration or foundation” for that.

Watch the entire segment about Ed Welburn and his work designing cars for General Motors at CBS News.

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