August 2020
Anyone who had the pleasure of meeting Kirwan Elmers, L145, likely came away with the same impression: a warm, courteous man who always had a smile and a nice thing to say. And a camera.
Those qualities, paired with his mechanical and marketing smarts, shaped a remarkable career at the helm of Custom Coach Corporation. The company is credited as the first to specialize in custom-built motorhome conversions of bus shells.
Kirwan Morrow Elmers, 91, passed away on May 10, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio.
“Kirwan knew how to relate to everyone,” editor Larry Plachno wrote in the July 2020 issue of National Bus Trader. “In the morning he could explain bus things to my children, at noon he could speak with entertainers about building their next conversion, and in the afternoon he would meet with a prince from Saudi Arabia who wanted a coach.”
Kirwan and Regina Elmers, at home with Bella, their Yorkshire terrier, were married for 41 years and resided in Columbus, Ohio.
Kirwan also was instrumental in FMCA’s formation. In July 1963 he attended a gathering of “house car” owners in Hinckley, Maine, arriving in a 35-foot Marmon-Herrington bus his company had converted. That weekend, the group decided to establish the Family Motor Coach Association. In 1965 Custom Coach joined FMCA as commercial member C14.
Kirwan was born on June 21, 1928, in Toledo, Ohio, to Miles and Leona Elmers. He attended The Ohio State University and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University. But he also received a valuable education from his father.
An entrepreneur, Miles canvassed the United States to promote various products. Every summer, the family traveled with him in a travel trailer he had designed as a hobby. In the early 1950s, Miles began promoting “all,” a low-sudsing laundry detergent that he had developed for automatic washing machines. Father and son visited the Flxible Company in Loudonville, Ohio, and persuaded officials to build a bus with a residential interior the family could use on business trips. The 1952 Visicoach was said to be the first commercially converted motorhome.
Not long after, Miles sold the detergent brand to Monsanto Corporation and purchased Flxible’s Land Cruiser division. In 1955, he and Kirwan established Custom Coach Corporation in Columbus.
Custom Coach ushered in many innovations, but Kirwan was said to be most proud of installing the first automatic transmission in a motor coach. Other coach conversion firsts included backup cameras (1965); cruise control (1967); and a 40-foot conversion (early 1970s). Custom Coach was one of the first to incorporate residential-style bathrooms, and the first to create a forward lounge.
Kirwan served on FMCA’s Commercial Council, a leadership group of FMCA commercial members, beginning in the 1960s. He presided as council president from 1990 to 1999.
“We always considered Kirwan to be a jewel of an individual,” said Frank Konigseder Jr. of Liberty Coach Corporation, a fellow Commercial Council member whose family also boasts a long custom coach conversion lineage. “As a family, we looked up to Kirwan and what he was building.”
While attending FMCA conventions, Mr. Konigseder recalled, “Kirwan would seek out me and my brother at our display and take us through his coaches. He was always inviting.”
Kirwan was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 2013. He was recognized as “a leader in introducing hundreds of musicians, sports figures, and other celebrities to the benefits of luxury tour bus travel.”
The list of famous clients could fill a book: Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Chubby Checker; Mohammed Ali and John Madden; Ray Kroc (McDonald’s) and Dave Thomas (Wendy’s); and President Bill Clinton, for starters. Custom Coach also designed many buses for the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Kirwan’s office walls were covered with photos he had taken with celebrities and other customers.
In 2019, Kirwan Elmers (left) and Mike Middaugh went for a November ride in Mike’s 1957 Flxible Starliner, the type of bus used for conversions when Custom Coach opened in 1955.
The company had several owners in later years, including Greyhound Lines and Motor Coach Industries. It became a division of Farber Specialty Vehicles in 2002. Kirwan still came to work into his late 80s, Ken Farber, company president, told the Columbus Dispatch. He drove a Jeep sporting “Bus Man” on the license plate.
Mike Middaugh, F3456, worked at Custom Coach for 12 years. “(Kirwan) was a real positive guy, always full of stories,” he told Bus & Motorcoach News. “He was known for taking pictures of everybody and everything, back when everything (was on) film. He would then frame the photos and send them to people via FedEx.”
In November 2019, Mr. Middaugh took Kirwan for a drive in his 1957 Flxible. Even then, he said, Kirwan made sure to get their photo taken in the bus. Kirwan leaves Regina Turner Elmers, his wife of 41 years; and two sons, Miles Marten Elmers and Jeffrey Earl Elmers, both of Phoenix, Arizona. He was preceded in death by his parents and a son, Scott Andrew Elmers. Memorial contributions may be made to Kobacker House, 800 McConnell Drive, Columbus, OH 43214.