Stockton Rush Biography
Stockton Rush is the CEO and founder of OceanGate, a company that offers deep-sea expeditions to explore the underwater world, including the wreck of the Titanic.
He is also an aerospace engineer, a pilot, an angel investor, and a descendant of one of San Francisco’s most prominent families.
Rush graduated from Princeton University in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering, and from UC Berkeley in 1989 with an MBA. He moved to Seattle to work for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a flight test engineer on the F-15 program.
Stockton Rush Age
Rush is 61 years old as of 2023. He was born on June 15, 1962, in San Francisco, California.
Stockton Rush Wife
Rush is married. His wife, Wendy, is a direct descendant of Isador and Ida Straus, who were passengers on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg during its maiden voyage in 1912. The couple famously refused to leave each other’s side and died together on the sinking ship. Wendy Rush has said that she feels a connection to her ancestors and their story of love and courage.
Stockton Rush Son
Rush’s son, Alexander, is following his father’s footsteps in pursuing a career in aerospace engineering. He is currently a senior at MIT, where he is majoring in aerospace engineering with a minor in computer science.
Alexander has interned at SpaceX and Blue Origin, two of the leading companies in the commercial space industry. He has also participated in several projects and competitions related to rocketry and robotics.
Stockton Rush Family
Stockton’s family includes his wife Wendy, his son Alexander, and his daughter Sophia. He also has two brothers, Peter and David. His father, William Rush Jr., was a prominent lawyer and civic leader in San Francisco, who served as president of the San Francisco Bar Association and the Commonwealth Club of California. His mother, Nancy Donner Rush, was a philanthropist and socialite who supported various causes and organizations.
Stockton Rush Background
Rush’s background is diverse and eclectic. He has said that he never really grew out of his childhood dream of wanting to be an astronaut, but his eyesight wasn’t good enough.
Rush has also said that he wanted to be a space explorer, but he realized later in life that every species to be discovered in our solar system is probably in the ocean. He has been fascinated by the ocean since he was a kid, when he watched documentaries by Jacques Cousteau and read books by Jules Verne.
Stockton Rush Nationality
Rush is of American nationality. He was born and raised in San Francisco, California. He holds dual citizenship with Canada through his mother, who was born in Montreal. Stockton speaks fluent French and Spanish.
Stockton Rush Ethnicity
Stockton’s ethnicity is not publicly known.
Stockton Rush OceanGate
Rush’s company, OceanGate, was founded in 2009 with the mission of being “dedicated to direct human exploration of the undersea world”. The company operates a fleet of submersibles that can dive to depths of up to 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), allowing passengers to observe marine life, shipwrecks, archaeological sites, and geological features. The company also conducts scientific research and data collection in collaboration with universities and institutions.
Stockton Rush Titanic
Stockton’s Titanic expeditions are one of the most ambitious and innovative projects undertaken by OceanGate. The company launched its first expedition to the Titanic wreck site in 2021, marking the 109th anniversary of the ship’s sinking. The company used its newest submersible, the Titan, which can dive to 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) and carry five people.
OceanGate charged $125,000 per person for the eight-day trip, which included three dives to the Titanic, as well as lectures, workshops, and social events on board a support vessel. The company planned to conduct more expeditions in 2022 and 2023, with the goal of creating a 3D model of the Titanic and documenting its condition and deterioration.
The Disappearance of Stockton Rush and His Titanic Submarine
On June 18, 2023, a tourist submarine named Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, went missing in the North Atlantic while on an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic. The submarine, which had a white hull and was 21 feet long, carried five people on board: Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, and four mission specialists, who paid up to $250,000 each for a seat on the historic dive.
Rush was a visionary entrepreneur who had a lifelong dream of exploring the deep sea. He founded OceanGate in 2009 with the goal of making underwater exploration accessible to more people. He designed and built the Titan, a carbon-fiber submersible that could withstand the immense pressure of diving to 13,000 feet below the surface, where the Titanic lies.
The Titan was on its sixth dive of the season when it lost contact with its support vessel, the Polar Prince, around 11:45 a.m. local time on Sunday. The last communication from the submersible indicated that it had reached the bottom and was about to start its ascent. The Polar Prince crew waited for an hour and 45 minutes for the sub to resurface, but it never did.
A massive search and rescue operation was launched by multiple agencies from the U.S. and Canada, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, and the Royal Canadian Air Force. The search area covered thousands of square miles of open ocean, where weather conditions were challenging and visibility was low.
On Wednesday morning, authorities announced that they had detected underwater noises in the search area, which could be from the submersible or its emergency beacon. They deployed remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to investigate the source of the sounds and scan the seabed for any signs of the Titan or its occupants.
The searchers faced a race against time, as the submersible had less than 40 hours of breathable air left as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Coast Guard estimates. The fate of Stockton Rush and his four passengers remained unknown as of Wednesday afternoon.
Stockton Rush’s Net Worth
Rush’s net worth is not publicly known. He however was “born into” wealth and “grew it”. He is the grandson of an oil and gas magnate. Rush became a private investor alongside working in aviation. He has invested in several startups and ventures related to space exploration, biotechnology, and renewable energy.