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Stockton Rush

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Stockton Rush
Rush in 2015
Born
Richard Stockton Rush III

(1962-03-31)March 31, 1962
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedJune 18, 2023(2023-06-18) (aged 61)
North Atlantic Ocean
(near the wreck of the Titanic)
Cause of death Implosion of Titan submersible
Education
Occupation
  • Businessman
Title
Term
  • 2009–2023 (OceanGate)
  • 1980s (McDonnell Douglas)
Spouse
Wendy Weil
​
(m. 1986)​
Children2
RelativesRalph K. Davies (grandfather)
Stockton Rush's voice
On the benefits of oceanic exploration
Recorded March 2015

Richard Stockton Rush III (March 31, 1962 – June 18, 2023) was an American businessman who was the co-founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate, a deep-sea exploration company.

After graduation from Princeton University, Rush worked for McDonnell Douglas as a flight test engineer on their F-15 program. He later worked for BlueView Technologies and the Museum of Flight in different capacities.[1] In 2009, he created the company OceanGate with Guillermo Söhnlein and was the only founder at OceanGate after Söhnlein's departure in 2013.

On June 18, 2023, Rush died along with four others in the Titan submersible implosion during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic in OceanGate's submersible Titan.

Early life

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Richard Stockton Rush III was born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, California, on March 31, 1962,[2][3] the youngest of five children born to Richard Stockton Rush Jr. and Ellen (née Davies).[4] His mother was a native of San Francisco, while his father was born in Philadelphia. His maternal grandfather was businessman Ralph K. Davies.[5] His maternal grandmother, Louise Davies, was a philanthropist and the namesake of San Francisco's Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall.[6] Through his father, he was a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton and physician Benjamin Rush.[7]

As a child, Rush wanted to become an astronaut and the first person on Mars,[8] and had an interest in aviation and aquatics. He began scuba diving at age 12, and became a commercial pilot at 18 years old.[9][10] He was later told his visual acuity would disqualify him from becoming a military aviator.[10] In 1980, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy.[6] In 1984, Rush received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University.[2] In 1989, he received a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.[11][12]

Career

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After graduating from Princeton, Rush worked briefly for McDonnell Douglas as a flight-test engineer for the F-15 program before getting his MBA.[12] Later on, Rush worked as a venture capitalist for the San Francisco company Peregrine Partners.[13] He relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 1989 to manage the company Remote Control Technology based in Kirkland, Washington.[14] He claimed to have built an experimental airplane later that year that he flew throughout his life.[15]

Rush was a hobbyist scuba diver and spent time diving in the waters of Puget Sound. In 2006, after his first excursion in a submarine in British Columbia, Rush became interested in ocean exploration at lower depths.[9] Rush began considering purchasing a submersible but discovered there were fewer than 100 privately-owned submarines worldwide and was unable to purchase one. He instead constructed a miniature submersible using blueprints provided to him by a retired U.S. Navy submarine commander. The vessel Rush constructed was 4 metres (13 ft) long and capable of diving to a depth of 10 metres (33 ft).[10] After the construction of his miniature submersible he continued to try to purchase a submersible, including attempting to buy Steve Fossett's submersible vehicle after Fossett's 2007 death, but was unsuccessful.[8]

Around 2007, Rush began to explore the idea of founding his own submarine company.[8] He believed that there could be significant market for underwater ocean tourism and that it would provide an alternative to the significant time and technical gear required for scuba diving.[10] Rush founded OceanGate with business partner Guillermo Söhnlein in 2009. According to Rush, the goal of the company was to use commercial tourism to fund the development of new deep-diving submersibles that would enable further commercial ventures including resource mining and disaster mitigation.[16] Söhnlein left OceanGate in 2013.[17][18]

While performing market research for OceanGate, Rush determined that the private market for underwater exploration had floundered due to a public reputation for danger and increased regulatory requirements for the operation of tourist submarines and submersibles. He believed these reasons were "understandable but illogical", and that the perception of danger much exceeded the actual risk. In particular, he was critical of the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993, a United States law which regulated the construction of ocean tourism vessels and prohibited dives below 150 feet, which Rush described as a law which "needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation".[10]

In 2016, exploring the sunken Andrea Doria on the Cyclops I, David Lochridge reported how Rush “smashed straight down” into the wreckage of the sunken ocean liner, an episode recounted during a Coast Guard hearing in 2024.[19]

In 2018, Rush piloted an expedition with researchers and scientists in the San Juan Islands to observe the red sea urchin and the habitat of the sand lance.[20] In 2021, after several delays, Rush finally started his deep submergence business.[21] Prior to the June 2023 dive, Rush was sued for $210,000 by a couple in Florida concerning a planned 2018 dive to the Titanic that they claim was repeatedly canceled and postponed. The couple claimed that they were unable to get a refund due to Rush's actions.[22][23] After Rush's death, the couple dropped the lawsuit out of respect for the lives lost on the Titan.[24][25]

In a 2022 podcast with CBS reporter David Pogue, Rush discussed his views on the balance between risk and safety:

You know, at some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don't get out of bed, don't get in your car, don't do anything. At some point, you're going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.[26]

Titan expedition and death

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Main article: Titan submersible implosion

Rush was in the Titan, a submersible owned and designed by OceanGate, to view the wreck of the Titanic when the vessel lost contact with the surface ship MV Polar Prince on June 18, 2023.[27] Search-and-rescue missions involved water and air support from the United States, Canada, and France.[28]

On June 22, after the discovery of a debris field approximately 490 metres (1,600 ft) from the bow of the Titanic,[29] OceanGate said it believed Rush and the four others aboard had died.[30] A United States Coast Guard press conference later confirmed that the debris found was consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure hull, an implosion, resulting in the instantaneous deaths of all aboard.[29]

Personal life

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Rush married pilot and teacher Wendy Weil in 1986, and they had two children.[31][32] Weil is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Blun Straus, both of whom died in the sinking of the Titanic.[31][33] She was the former Director of Communications at OceanGate.[31]

References

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  1. ^ Mazarakis, Anna (June 23, 2023). "Big Dreams and Daring Marked the Life of Stockton Rush '84". Alumni News. Princeton Alumni Weekly. Archived from the original on June 26, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Roberts, Sam (June 22, 2023). "Stockton Rush, Pilot of the Titan Submersible, Declared Dead at 61". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  3. ^ Calvert, Scott; Campo-Flores, Arian (June 22, 2023). "Stockton Rush, Founder of Titanic Submersible Company, Saw Opportunity in Undersea Tourism". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  4. ^ Dowd, Katie (December 8, 2023). "Missing Titanic submersible CEO is from prominent SF family". Sfgate. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  5. ^ Dowd, Katie (December 8, 2023). "Missing Titanic submersible CEO is from prominent SF family". Sfgate. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Wendy Weil Is the Bride Of Engineer". The New York Times. July 6, 1986. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
  7. ^ Dowd, Katie (June 21, 2023). "Missing Titanic submersible CEO Stockton Rush is from prominent San Francisco family". SFGate. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Locker, Melissa (April 14, 2017). "The Man Who Wants To Send Us To The Bottom Of The Ocean". Fast Company. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Timmins, Beth (May 9, 2017). "Stockton Rush: Meet the man leading tours of the Titanic". The Independent. Archived from the original on May 11, 2017. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c d e Perrottet, Tony (June 2019). "A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the 'Titanic'". Smithsonian. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  11. ^ Morrow, Allison (June 21, 2023). "Stockton Rush: What we know about the Titan submersible's pilot". CNN Business. CNN. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  12. ^ a b Sommerlad, Joe (June 22, 2023). "Who is Stockton Rush? The OceanGate CEO missing in Titanic tourist submarine". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  13. ^ Dowd, Katie (December 8, 2023). "Missing Titanic submersible CEO is from prominent SF family". Sfgate. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
  14. ^ Reznick, Alisa (October 31, 2013). "Company plans carbon-fiber sub to dive deeply, cheaply". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
  15. ^ Victor, Daniel (June 20, 2023). "Titan Pilot Is a Booster of Deep-Sea Tourism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  16. ^ Betts, Anna (June 20, 2023). "OceanGate Expeditions Was Created to Explore Deep Waters". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  17. ^ Hubler, Shawn; Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas; Betts, Anna (June 23, 2023). "OceanGate Founder Pushed to Expand Deep Sea Travel Despite Chorus of Concerns". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 23, 2023.
  18. ^ Cornwell, Paige (June 24, 2023). "OceanGate cofounder recalls origins, defends late CEO's approach to safety". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 25, 2023.
  19. ^ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (September 17, 2024). "OceanGate Founder Crashed a Submersible Years Before Titan Disaster". New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  20. ^ Long, Katherine (September 15, 2018). "In a five-person submarine, scientists in Friday Harbor unravel the mysteries of the Salish Sea". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  21. ^ Boyle, Alan (July 13, 2021). "OceanGate sub makes first dive to Titanic wreck site and captures photos of debris". Geekwire. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  22. ^ Morgan, Silas (June 21, 2023). "CEO of company that owns missing Titanic tour sub faces fraud lawsuit by Winter Park couple". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on June 23, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  23. ^ Kari, Doug (June 23, 2023). "Lawsuits foreshadowed Titanic sub disaster". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023.
  24. ^ Hurley, Bevan. "Florida couple drop lawsuit against OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023.
  25. ^ Greenberg, Chloe. "Winter Park couple drop lawsuit against OceanGate CEO in light of his death". Orlando Weekly. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023.
  26. ^ Slisco, Aila (June 20, 2023). "Stockton Rush was issued a dire warning on submersible, Titanic expedition". Newsweek. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  27. ^ "What we know about the passengers on board missing Titanic submersible". Sky News. June 19, 2023. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  28. ^ Henley, Jon (June 21, 2023). "Titanic sub live updates: vessel may have less than 20 hours of oxygen left, says US Coast Guard, as search continues". The Guardian. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  29. ^ a b Chao-Fong, Léonie (June 22, 2023). "Titan sub: crew have died after catastrophic loss of pressure chamber, US Coast Guard confirms – latest updates". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  30. ^ Regan, Helen; Renton, Adam; Picheta, Rob; Sangal, Aditi; Hammond, Elise; Meyer, Matt (June 22, 2023). "Missing Titanic sub crew believed to be dead, tour company says". CNN. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  31. ^ a b c Patil, Anushka (June 21, 2023). "Submersible Pilot's Spouse Is Descended From a Famous Titanic Couple". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  32. ^ Darlingberg, Dwomoh (June 22, 2023). "Stockton Rush's Married Wife and Children: Meet His Partner Wendy and Their Kids". TheDistin.com. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  33. ^ France, Lisa Respers (June 22, 2023). "Wife of submersible pilot is a descendant from Titanic couple who perished". CNN. Archived from the original on June 26, 2023. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
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