Wilbur Lucius Cross III (August 17, 1918 – March 4, 2019) was an American author with over 50 books to his credit.[1][2] He spent 10 years as an editor at Life. He was the grandson of Wilbur Lucius Cross.

Wilbur Cross
Born
Wilbur Lucius Cross III

(1918-08-17)August 17, 1918
Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMarch 4, 2019(2019-03-04) (aged 100)
Alma materYale University
OccupationAuthor
SpouseEsther Wilkinson

Early life and education

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Cross wrote mini books for his friends at an early age.[3] He graduated from Kent School in 1937 and Yale University.[4]

Upon graduation from Yale, he served in the United States Army and became a captain.[4] He served in the Pacific theater during World War II for 39 months with communications, radar and photo units.[4]

Career

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After serving in the army, he worked for an ad agency where he was a copy writer.[3] He became a senior editor for Continental Oil Company, where he wrote CONOCO, The First One Hundred Years.[4]

As a free-lance writer in the 1950s and 1960s, he interviewed General Umberto Nobile and survivors of airship Italia, which crashed in the arctic in 1928, for an article in True magazine.[5] This became the basis for the book, Disaster at the Pole.[5]

He died in March 2019 at the age of 100.[6]

Books

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  • Challengers of the Deep[3]
  • Disaster at the Pole[5]
  • Encyclopedia of American Submarines (2003)[2]
  • Gullah Culture in America (2012)[3]
  • Zeppelins of World War I (2003)[2]

References

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  1. ^ Blog at WordPress.com.
  2. ^ a b c McKinney, Don. "Latest works by author detail submarines, zeppelins", The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, South Carolina, volume 33, June 8, 2003, Lowcountry, page 4-D. (subscription required)
  3. ^ a b c d Paprocki, Justin. "A love for Gullah", The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, South Carolina, volume 42, February 10, 2012, LowcountryLife Arts & Culture, page 1C. (subscription required)
  4. ^ a b c d Oravec, Joseph. "Cross Authors Weekend Education Book", The Sunday Times, Scranton, Pennsylvania, volume 11, number 15, May 2, 1976, page A-9. (subscription required)
  5. ^ a b c Ackerman, Jerry. "'Pole' chronicles 'strange and unreal' Arctic airship disaster", The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Knoxville, Tennessee, issue 37,470, October 22, 2000, page G8. (subscription required)
  6. ^ Wilbur Cross obituary