If you have been around Ocean City long enough, you likely will recognize Pat Croce as a fixture throughout town. He has several business interests in the area including Pirate Island Golf, Congo Falls Golf and Greate Bay Country Club, Pat has become one of Ocean City’s most well-known Summer residents. His roots in Ocean City formed from a very early age.
“My parents brought us down to Ocean City as kids and I just always loved it here” exclaimed Croce “I would come back here and spend the summers as a college kid working jobs painting houses and I was a bouncer at the famous Dunes ‘Til Dawn back in the day.”
While Croce’s entrepreneurial drive and ambition lead him to great success, including famously owning the Philadelphia 76ers, Pat’s love for Ocean City has always remained fully intact.
“My wife, Diane, and I took our grandchildren up to the boardwalk last year and we put them on the same rides we put our children on. It’s as if that moment in time stood still. It felt exactly the same way it did years ago, I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world that you can get that feeling. “
Pat’s connection to Ocean City is evident to all those who have had the pleasure to meet him “He would come in to my deli all the time and everyone looked forward to seeing him” said Steve Dyjak, the owner of Ceil’s Deli formerly on Battersea Road from 1987-1998 “Every time he would come in, I spoke to him and felt motivated. Pat has an amazing presence and is genuinely a good guy”
While Pat has taken a step back from being as involved in his daily business operations, he always looks forward to heading down to Ocean City. “For me, Ocean City is and always will be about family. It’s a special place and there is nowhere else like it in the world.”
