Stockton Rush

Stockton Rush
Rush in 2015
Born	Richard Stockton Rush III (1962-03-31)March 31, 1962 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	June 18, 2023(2023-06-18) (aged 61) North Atlantic Ocean
Cause of death	Implosion of Titan submersible
Education	Princeton University (BS) University of California, Berkeley (MBA)
Title	Co-founder and CEO of OceanGate; Test engineer for McDonnell Douglas
Term	2009—2023 (OceanGate); 1980s (McDonnell Douglas)
Spouse	Wendy Weil ​ (m. 1986)​
Children	2
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 and flight test engineer. He was best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer of the deep-sea exploration company OceanGate.

Following graduation from Princeton, Rush worked for McDonnell Douglas' F-15 program. He would later work for BlueView Technologies and the Museum of Flight in different capacities.^[1] In 2009, Rush would create OceanGate with fellow co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein and was the only founder at OceanGate following Söhnlein's departure in 2013.^[2][3][4]

On June 18, 2023, he was killed along with four others aboard OceanGate's submersible Titan, which imploded during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.

Early life and education

Rush was born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, California, on March 31, 1962.^[3][5] He was the youngest of five children born to Richard Stockton Rush Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Ellen Rush (née Davies) of San Francisco. His maternal grandfather was Ralph K. Davies. His maternal grandmother, Louise Davies, was a philanthropist and the namesake of the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.^[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, he dreamt of becoming an astronaut and becoming 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 degree from Princeton University in aerospace engineering.^[3] In 1989, he received a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.^[4][2]

Career

After graduating from Princeton, Rush briefly worked for McDonnell Douglas as a flight-test engineer for F-15 Eagle jets before getting his MBA. Later on Rush worked as a venture capitalist at the San Francisco firm Peregrine Partners. He moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1989 to run the company Remote Control Technology based in Kirkland, Washington.^[11] He claimed to have built an experimental plane later that year that he flew throughout his life.^[12]

Rush was a hobbyist scuba diver and spent time diving in the waters of Puget Sound. In 2006, following his first trip on a submarine in British Columbia, Rush became interested in ocean exploration at lower depths.^[9] Rush began looking into 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 4m long and capable of diving to a depth of 10m.^[10] Following the construction of his miniature submersible he continued to try to purchase a submersible, including attempting to buy Steve Fossett's submersible vehicle following 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 support the development of new deep-diving submersibles that would enable further commercial ventures including resource mining and disaster mitigation.^[13] Söhnlein left OceanGate in 2013.^[14][15]

While conducting 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 on the operation of tourist submarines and submersibles. He believed these reasons were "understandable but illogical," and that the perception of danger far 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 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.^[16] By 2023, Rush had made at least 13 trips to the Titanic.^[17] Prior to the June 2023 dive, Rush was sued by a couple in Florida over a planned 2018 dive to the Titanic that they claim was repeatedly cancelled and postponed. The couple claimed that they were unable to get a refund due to Rush's actions.^[18][19] Following Rush's death, the couple dropped the lawsuit against him.^[20][21]

Titan expedition and death

Rush was on board the Titan, a submersible owned and designed by OceanGate, to view the Titanic wreckage, when the vessel lost contact with the surface ship MV Polar Prince on June 18, 2023.^[22] Search-and-rescue missions involved water and air support from the United States, Canada, and France.^[23]

On June 22, after the discovery of a debris field approximately 490 metres (1,600 ft) from the bow of the Titanic,^[24] OceanGate said it believed Rush and the four others aboard had "sadly been lost".^[25] 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 on board.^[24]

Personality and personal life

In a 2022 podcast with CBS reporter David Pogue, Rush discussed his attitude toward what he perceived as excessive safety precautions. He said: "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]

Rush married Wendy Weil, a pilot and teacher, in 1986.^[27] The couple had two children.^[28] Wendy Weil Rush is a great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Blun Straus, both of whom died in the sinking of the Titanic, through their daughter Minnie Straus Weil.^[27][29] She is the director of communications at OceanGate.^[27]

References