NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- James V. Cresente, the operator of a small gas station who created a second career by standing up to the giants of the oil industry, died Sunday at 92, said the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Cresente, the executive director of the Northern Ohio Petroleum Retailers Association for more than 30 years, was an advocate for independent station owners who often felt that their livelihoods were threatened by the whims of the gasoline suppliers. His group was one of the nation's earliest and best-known trade groups for local owners, said the [image-nocss] report.
In 1957, Cresente was the only station operator to testify when he made the first of several appearances before a congressional committee investigating the oil industry. It shows that in this country, if a man tries hard enough, he can get someone to listen to him, he told a reporter at the time. More competition at the wholesale level would bring prices down, he added.
Cresente worked as a bookkeeper until he opened a Pure Oil station in 1939. In 1950, when gasoline was 26 cents a gallon, Cresente met with a half-dozen other operators to protest a reduction of two-tenths of a cent in the price of a gallon of gasoline that was imposed by Standard Oil Co. (Ohio), cutting the dealers' profit margin. Sohio stations were so dominant in the area that other companies had to follow Sohio's lead. The meeting sparked the start of the retailers association, the report said.
Sohio, which was later acquired by British Petroleum, restored the price three weeks later.
I think this is wrong, since I believe in the free enterprise system and I still wonder how one person or company can control the price of gasoline, Cresente said many years later.
He gave up his service station to work full time as head of the retailers association. He challenged the oil companies' control over the products that dealers carried. He testified before city councils and the state legislature, as well as Congress. In 1974, the association reached a peak of 1,354 members, but then declined, the Plain Dealer said.
Despite his expertise, Cresente misjudged a major trend. He did not think self-serve gasoline would capture more than 25% of the market, the report said. Can you imagine your wife getting out of the car in the rain to pump her own gas? he asked in 1976.
By 1980, membership in the organization had slipped by 500 members. He retired a year later.
Cresente is survived by his wife, a daughter, two grandchildren and a brother. A son, Robert, died in 1983.
CSP Daily News sends condolences to his family, his friends and his colleagues.
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