Clive Chipkin was born in Yeoville in 1929 and, apart from a short period in the UK, lived in Johannesburg for the rest of his life. His wife, Valerie, whom he married in 1959, died in 2015 and it was in her honour that the archive of his historic research, located at Wits University, was named in 2017. Chipkin is survived by three children, Peter, Lesley and Ivor, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Over a 40-year period Chipkin wrote and published two books,
Johannesburg Style – Architecture & Society 1880’s to 1960’s and
Johannesburg Transition – Architecture & Society from 1950. A third book,
Johannesburg Diversity, has been completed but not yet published.