Although he was born in San Francisco, CA on September 27, 1939 to Herbert Francis Cullen and Gretchen Heilborn Cullen (Bierbach), Clift Cairncross Cullen was raised on the island of Oahu, Hawaii and always considered it home. He would go by the name “Cairn”, a truncated version of his middle name, which came from his father’s side of the family. His first name however, “Clift”, which many would know him by later in life, had its origins where the Cullens had taken up residence during their extended stay in California that year; San Francisco’s Clift Hotel.
The place he most associated as his childhood home was the one his parents built at 3403 Kahawalu Drive in the suburb of Nuuanu. It was from the patio of that house a two-year-old Cairn would witness the bombing of Pearl Harbor in his mother’s arms. The large property which the home was built upon, and the undeveloped land and stream behind it, were his playground where he learned to love nature, however it also supported his growing interest in manufactured devices. The porch was where his pet mongoose spent each night. The lawn was where he reassembled and rewired a Link Trainer (a very early, but fully-functional flight simulator) which had been discarded in pieces from a school nearby. The subterranean garage was where a young Cairn recalled disassembling a car engine for the very first time; an operation which would later become the basis for his career and a passion he would share with others around the globe.
Like his parents, Cairn attended the prestigious Punahou School and graduated from there in 1958. In a story he often repeated, he would say that his father had to beg the administration to let him graduate by promising them that he would never attend college. This promise would be broken in spectacular fashion as he went on to attend Church College of Hawaii, Santa Rosa Junior College, CSU Fresno, and ultimately the University of Southern California. As a professor, he wore the title of “Dr.” with disdain, always introducing himself as simply “Cairn” or “Clift”, but almost never as “Dr. Cullen”. When probed about his advanced degrees, he’d simply say, “What’s the difference…it’s all bullshit anyway.” He taught at CSU Fresno for 42 years, retiring in 2008. He was a gifted and inspirational instructor of the highest order.
Cairn always called Hawaii home, however, he spent the vast majority of his life in the Fresno area. While attending CSU Fresno in 1961, he lived in the Theta Chi fraternity house. Later, he would move to a small apartment above Linenbach Auto Parts in Clovis, and finally to his suburban home just northets of the college. This was where Cairn would replicate the things he loved about Hawaii; large sprawling lawns, fruit-bearing trees of all kinds, windmill-driven water pumps, and a pond with pet geese….lots of geese. It was also the place where, through the use of his tools, he could fix and/or fabricate nearly ANYTHING. The more difficult the problem, the deeper he would delve into his powerful intellect and the more satisfied he would be once the job was finished. The only thing he enjoyed more than solving his project-related problems was solving other people’s problems and teaching them along the way.
Never one to adopt social norms, Cairn could usually be found wearing some variant of a Hawaiian shirt, a pair of laundry-service pants, and a long shop coat. He gave no regard for how his hair appeared; sometimes it was long, other times it was short, a bit wavy and curly at times, but rarely was it manicured. His lack of fashion sense gave him an air of peculiarity (he frequently stated, “I’m weird. You know that!”), but once you took the time to get to know him, it was clear he was always thinking, had a lot to say, and that he enjoyed meeting people and forging relationships.
Cairn was a dedicated son, visiting his mother in Hawaii twice annually every year after his father passed way suddenly in 1961. He’d visit for the majority of the summer as well as during the Christmas break. While visiting, a full workweek at Punahou’s Physical Plant was the norm, as his coworkers there had saved up the most difficult and technical tasks for him because of his skill level in a variety of industrial processes. A portion of each summer though, was reserved for a fabulous vacation to a far and distant land with his mother. Cairn doted on his mother until the very end, when she passed away in her sleep during the first night of her visit to his home in January of 1998.
Relationships with good people were of high value to Cairn. He would do nearly anything for a friend, all you had to do was ask. He also found joy and love with his girlfriend of 51 years, Barbara Bradberry. The two met at a laundromat in 1971; Cairn was there maintaining the machinery, while Barbara was working at the dry cleaners in back. They began dating and never looked back until her passing in 2022. They loved spending time together, whether it was traveling the world or spending a quiet evening at home together.
Cairn loved challenging projects of all sizes and he took on one of his largest in 2013 when he purchased an abandoned parcel of land on the island of Molokai. Littered with forgotten heavy equipment and a home which had been open to the elements for years, he methodically engaged the challenge with the energy of a person twenty years his junior. He worked for the majority of each year tirelessly, pausing only to return to Clovis to reload shipping containers with more supplies for his project. After several years of working at this pace, the property had been transformed into pared-down version of his home in Clovis but with many of the same amenities….and of course, along the way, he had resurrected many of those pieces of heavy equipment and some were even used regularly around the property. By 2021, his pace had slowed and he frequently complained he lacked the stamina to work more than a few consecutive hours. As he had done each previous year, he flew back to Clovis for Christmas that year, but he would never again return to the place he considered home.
The following years brought with them a myriad of health issues for Cairn. First, the diagnosis of stage 4, B-cell lymphoma partially explained the exhaustion and weight loss which had plagued him for the last year. Shortly after, he received a prosthetic heart valve to address a new level of exhaustion he’d been experiencing. Late in 2022, he was hospitalized with a case of pneumonia which culminated in hospice care. After a six-week stint though, he beat back the pneumonia and recovered enough to live on his own once again.
The year 2023 started off with more bad news; a case of Valley Fever which further robbed him of energy and caused him to take even more medication daily. Despite of all of these challenges, Cairn actually seemed to rally in the latter part of 2023. He was up to his old tricks of taking in broken equipment and repairing them, problem solving for others, and seeking out long-lost antique devices which reminded him of his childhood. He moved slower and even let others attend to many matters on his behalf, yet he was still advancing.
Cairn’s health began to deteriorate in January of 2024 for the final time and he passed away at his home in Clovis on April 13th due to complications of Lymphoma.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.whitehurstsullivan.com for the Cullen family.
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