Norbert Cross, entrepreneur, developer, "common man with lots of money"
Rob Cibik
Businessman, brother made Peak a success
BY JIM CARROLL
The Erie (PA) Times-News
March 5, 2008
FINDLEY LAKE, N.Y. -- Skiers on the slopes at Peek'n Peak Resort and
Spa owe Norbert J. Cross a tip of the cap.
In fact, some Findley Lake businessmen say their whole area owes him
that -- and more.
Cross, 69, who died at his home Monday, and his late brother Eugene
were for 18 years the driving force behind development of the resort.
"Norbert and his brother, Gene, were a godsend. They took a sick
little company in a sleepy little village, ... and they plowed their
own money into it and made it a success," said Pete Howard, president
of Findley Lake Realty Howard & Associates.
"They transformed this area," he said.
Howard said he knows how sick the Peak was. He was on the board of
receivership of the bankrupt company when the Cross family bought it
in 1988.
"A shack with some obsolete lifts" was the way Howard described the
operations.
By the time the Crosses sold the resort to Ohio real estate developer
Paul Kiebler in 2006, things had changed dramatically.
It was by then an all-season resort that boasted 27 ski slopes,
snowmaking machines, an Alpine-like main lodge and restaurant, two
golf courses, condos, a conference center, and indoor and outdoor
swimming pools.
The only note of Norbert Cross' passing was a brief death notice in
newspapers on Tuesday, saying that no public services will be held.
Family members told the funeral home that Cross was adamant that he
didn't want public attention -- no memorial services, no photograph,
not even an obituary.
"That was Norbert. Low-key. He didn't need to talk about what he had
and the things he did." Powell said. "That was his style."
Brad Gravink, general manager of Peek'n Peak and Cross' right-hand man
there, declined to comment Tuesday, saying that he thought that would
go contrary to the Cross family's wishes.
The Cross brothers, of Waterford, made their money in gas, oil and
road-construction businesses -- Cross and Co. Contractors, Union City
Sand and Gravel, and NEA Cross, according to a 2005 obituary for
Eugene Cross.
"Norbert was just a super guy," said Bruce Ahlquist, a friend and
owner of the Blue Heron restaurant in Findley Lake, where Cross would
come in for quiche and shrimp cocktail.
"He was a tell-it-like-he-saw-it kind of guy," Ahlquist said. "You
always knew where you stood with Norbert."
Friends in Findley Lake said Norbert Cross was a successful
businessman who came across as another guy on the street as he walked
around town in work shoes and jeans or khaki pants.
"He was a common man with lots of money," said Bud Noble, who operates
the Wonderments gift shop with his wife, Judy. "He was one of us, but
he had the knowledge and the money to change things."
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