The billionaire owner of the company behind the missing Titan submarine is a lifelong adventurer who dreamed of being the first man on Mars – and descends from two US Founding Fathers.
Stockton Rush, full name Richard Stockton Rush III, is the CEO of OceanGate and one of five people who boarded the submersible Titan to visit the Titanic wreck site.
Mr Rush, 61, has always been ambitious. At 19, he became the youngest jet transport pilot in the world before graduating from Princeton with an aerospace engineering degree. During his summer vacation he flew for Saudi Arabian Airlines.
This was all part of his dream: to become the first man on Mars.
He worked on F-15 and anti-satellite missile programs, all with hopes of eventually joining the space program. He also served as chairman of Remote Control Technologies, director of Entomo, Inc. and director of BlueView Technologies for two decades.
But at the age of 44, Rush, whose ancestors include founding fathers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, decided that the final frontier was indeed the ocean. Mars just isn’t economically viable, he said.
In a 2017 interview, he said, “I realized I really wanted to explore something. I wanted to be Captain Kirk, and in our lifetime, the last frontier is the ocean.”
Stockton Rush, full name Richard Stockton Rush III, is the CEO of OceanGate and one of five people who boarded the submersible Titan to visit the Titanic wreck site
At 19, he became the youngest jet transport pilot in the world before graduating from Princeton with an aerospace engineering degree
Wendy Rush, wife of Stockton Rush and also Director of Communications at OceanGate
He founded OceanGate in 2009, starting with a five-person submarine that he purchased from a private owner.
That led to his Titanic missions – the unique selling point of Mr. Rush’s ambitious venture, which was recently valued at $66 million.
Mr. Rush grew up in a wealthy family, with his maternal grandparents, Ralph K. Davies, chairman of American President Lines, and Louise M. Davies, who paid $5 million for a San Francisco concert hall named after her.
Going back even further, he is descended from Annis Stockton, a celebrated poet and friend of George Washington, one of the most prolific and widely published writers in 18th-century America.
She also kept important documents hidden during the Revolutionary War.
Later ancestors include US Attorney General Richard Rush and US Civil War commander Richard Henry Rush.
The younger Mr. Rush has done his best to live up to the family name, founding OceanGate Expeditions after failing to purchase explorer and businessman Steve Fossett’s submersible after the adventurer died in a plane crash in 2007.
Stockton Rush, whose ancestors include founding fathers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, is the CEO of OceanGate
OceanGate has been offering tourists the opportunity to explore the wreckage of the Titanic for a number of years
In 2009 he bought his first submarine from a private seller and a year later added the Antipodes submarine.
The two ships enabled him to make 130 dives in two years and he quickly began building his own ship, a submersible.
They differ from submarines in that they require a mother ship. Soon Mr. Rush created the Cyclops.
The ship would serve as a prototype for what later became the Titan.
Since the formation of the Cyclops, OceanGate has conducted dozens of dives around the world, attracting the world’s rich, including rappers and billionaire businessmen.
However, the company’s crowning glory came in 2021 and 2022 when Titan completed expeditions to the site of the Titanic wreck.
Speaking of his determination to reach the Titanic, Mr Rush said in 2019: “If you ask people to name anything underwater, it’s going to be sharks, whales, Titanic.”
The Titanic voyages have also proven to be OceanGate’s most lucrative dives.
The company charges $250,000 per seat, and Mr Rush said in 2017 that his first customers were all passengers on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, (pictured together) are on board the missing submarine
Among the expedition’s participants is billionaire Hamish Harding (pictured), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. He excitedly posted on social media that he was there on Sunday
Paul-Henry Nargeolet is considered the world’s leading expert on the Titanic
The missing OceanGate submersible Titan lost contact with the mother ship Sunday morning while descending to the shipwreck
During the large-scale search for the missing Titanic submarine, popping noises were detected
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: The Titan lost contact with the surface, causing panic. All times are in BST, five hours ahead of EST.
The so-called “adventure travel market” is OceanGate’s main target, Mr Rush previously said.
“There is a great demand for unique travel experiences,” he added.
OceanGate Expeditions’ 22-foot ship is low on oxygen. The five on board, which includes British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, are staying in the dark depths of the Atlantic, in what experts have likened to “being in space”.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, his son Suleman, 19, and French dive pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Mr. Rush are also trapped inside.
Speaking of his company’s signature underwater journey, Mr. Rush said in 2017, “It’s truly a life-changing experience, and something like that doesn’t come along often.”
“Instead of spending $65,000 to climb Mount Everest, maybe dying and spending a month in a miserable base camp, you can change your life in a week.”
The words now take on a poignant tone as his friends and family – including wife Wendy – pray for his rescue.