A native of Maine, Cross attended Yarmouth High School, and went by the nickname "Peck.
"[1] A former commander in the United States Navy Reserve and employee of such companies as Montgomery Ward and S. S. Kresge Company, Cross received his Bachelor of Arts from Bates College in 1931, and then went on to receive a Master of Arts in Mathematics from the University of Miami and a Doctor of Philosophy in Business from the New York University Stern School of Business in 1956.
"[2] In 1959, Cross was named Dean and Professor of Marketing of the University of Hartford Barney School of Business.
On June 24, 1966, Cross married Evelyn-Mae Bradbury, a 1949 graduate of Bryant University, in Avon, Connecticut.
Following retirement in the 1970s, Cross moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he had resided for twenty years, and died in 1993.