A look at Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate's Stockton Rush, she is descended from couple who died on Titanic

Wendy Rush is the wife of CEO and founder of OceanGate Stockton Rush, who is missing  along with Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman on board the Titanic submersible. She is also Director of Communications at OceanGate.

When it comes to her own family background, Wendy Rush’s great-great grandfather Isidor Straus and his wife Ida died aboard the Titanic in 1912. According to The New York Times, “Ms. Rush’s ancestors on the Titanic are perhaps best known for their tragic love story. Survivors of the disaster recalled seeing Isidor Straus refuse a seat on a lifeboat when women and children were still waiting to flee the sinking liner. Ida Straus, his wife of four decades, declared that she would not leave her husband, and the two were seen standing arm in arm on the Titanic’s deck as the ship went down.”

In the 1997 ‘Titanic’ film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the director James Cameron immortalised Isidor and his wife Ida by featuring a shot of an elderly couple embracing in bed as the water rises around their cabin. 

On Titanic Belfast’s website, they share the story of Isidor and Ida Straus through their great-great granddaughter Jessica Straus. “My great-great grandparents had been on holiday in the Riviera and they decided to book passage back to New York on board RMS Titanic. This wasn’t an expected trip. It was a last minute decision,” she said.

Jessica Straus went on to say that “My great-great grandparents were very notable passengers because they were among the wealthiest onboard. Their story was shared and became one of the stories of romance and heroism. Sadly, as we know now, there are many stories just like this from the terrible tragedy of the sinking.”

According to Wendy Rush’s LinkedIn page, she has been the Communications Director of OceanGate since January 2022. She is also a Comms and Tracking Team Member and lists that she has been on Titanic Expeditions in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and also lists her other experience as the Four Subs Project, the Hudson Canyon Expeditions, Bahamas Operations, Salish Sea Survey Expedition, Andrea Doria Expedition and Flower Garden Banks Expedition.

Wendy Rush went to Princeton University in the 1980s and reposted an OceanGate post a week ago. The post read: “The wreck of the Titanic lies about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic Expedition.”