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I saw with sadness this week that John Gross died.
Gross was a legendary business person who sometimes bent the rules a bit too much and did some jail time for it.
He also had a reputation for generosity and taking care of the less fortunate.
I met him once and talked to him another time.
The first time I met him it was at Joe D’Angelo’s surprise 87th birthday party at the Niagara River Yacht Club. He was part of the ruse, picking up D'Angelo and stopping for a drink before heading to the Boston Hotel in Lancaster for seafood. Joe was totally fooled when he entered the room to 100 of his closest friends.
It was the most Italian gathering I’d ever seen, from having clergy there to bless our meal in Italian and English to, at the conclusion, having a blonde woman in a tight dress appear to sing opera. At first I thought it was a stripper.
My next encounter with Gross came when our hot water tank needed emergency replacement.
A friend had left his plumbing industry job with Bryk & Sons. He suggested I call Gross.
“Hello?” he said in an impossibly old voice.
“Our gas hot water tank went and we need a replacement” I said.
“OK. So you want a basic gas hot water tank. My guys will be there about 3 p.m.” he said.
5 minutes later he called back. “It’s going to be closer to noon.”
Sure enough, his guys showed up, bitched about our basement stairs (I don’t like them either) and installed the new tank.
The invoice was $1,200 or so. When I complained about the price, his guy had a quick comeback.
“It’s about $300 more than we used to charge because John’s cost went up,” he said. “He didn’t change the cost of labor or installation but he couldn’t eat the price increase.”
I did some research. Any other plumber would have made us wait at least a week and charged $1,500.
John didn’t know who I was. It didn’t matter. If there is one story like that in the community, I bet there are 1,000 more just like it.
