The CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush — who was on board his company’s submersible that went missing earlier this week and is believed to be dead — was married to a woman with ancestral ties to the infamous Titanic.
Wendy Rush is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, two passengers who lost their lives in the sinking of the Titanic and who were briefly portrayed in the 1997 blockbuster film directed by James Cameron.
Wendy and her husband were married in 1986, according to a wedding announcement published at the time by the New York Times. According to LinkedIn, she is also the director of communications and expedition team member at OceanGate Inc, the privately owned Seattle-based company where her husband served as CEO.
The Straus Historical Society confirmed the ancestry link to TODAY.com.
“Wendy Weil Rush, the wife/widow of Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, is the great, great granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus who lost their lives in the Titanic disaster,” they said in a statement. “Her great grandmother was Minnie, one of three daughters of Iidor and Ida. Minnie married Richard Weil.”
According to the National Archives, Straus and Ida had emigrated to the United States from Germany and boarded the Titanic after returning to their native country for a visit.
Their fateful voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean ended on April 14, 1912, when the passenger liner hit an iceberg. The older Straus refused to board after realizing that younger men were denied positions on lifeboats. Ida, in turn, refused to leave her husband’s side, reportedly saying, “Where you go, I go.”
Her maid, Ellen, survived with a fur coat — a departing gift from Ida. The couple were reportedly last seen holding hands on the ship’s deck before being swept away.
The Strauses' story was portrayed in Cameron's film as an elderly couple that chose to spend their last moments in bed together as water rushed into their room.
Today, the Isidor and Ida Straus Memorial sits at the intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue at W. 106th Street in Manhattan, New York.
