26 Facts About Stockton Rush

Richard Stockton Rush III was an American businessman who was the co-founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate, a deep-sea exploration company.

Stockton Rush later worked for BlueView Technologies and the Museum of Flight in different capacities.

On June 18,2023, Stockton Rush died along with four others in the Titan submersible implosion during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic in OceanGate's submersible Titan.

Richard Stockton Rush III was born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, California, on March 31,1962, the youngest of five children born to Richard Stockton Rush Jr.

Stockton Rush's mother was a native of San Francisco, while his father was born in Philadelphia.

Stockton Rush's maternal grandmother, Louise Davies, was a philanthropist and the namesake of San Francisco's Louise M Davies Symphony Hall.

Stockton Rush began scuba diving at age 12, and became a commercial pilot at 18 years old.

Stockton Rush was later told his visual acuity would disqualify him from becoming a military aviator.

In 1984, Stockton Rush received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University.

Later on, Stockton Rush worked as a venture capitalist for the San Francisco company Peregrine Partners.

Stockton Rush relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 1989 to manage the company Remote Control Technology based in Kirkland, Washington.

Stockton Rush claimed to have built an experimental airplane later that year that he flew throughout his life.

Stockton Rush was a hobbyist scuba diver and spent time diving in the waters of Puget Sound.

In 2006, after his first excursion in a submarine in British Columbia, Stockton Rush became interested in ocean exploration at lower depths.

Stockton Rush began considering purchasing a submersible but discovered there were fewer than 100 privately-owned submarines worldwide and was unable to purchase one.

Stockton Rush instead constructed a miniature submersible using blueprints provided to him by a retired US Navy submarine commander.

The vessel Stockton Rush constructed was 4 metres long and capable of diving to a depth of 10 metres.

Around 2007, Stockton Rush began to explore the idea of founding his own submarine company.

Stockton Rush 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.

Stockton Rush founded OceanGate with business partner Guillermo Sohnlein in 2009.

Stockton Rush believed these reasons were "understandable but illogical", and that the perception of danger much 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 Stockton Rush described as a law which "needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation".

In 2018, Stockton 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.

In 2021, after several delays, Stockton Rush finally started his deep submergence business.

Stockton Rush married pilot and teacher Wendy Weil in 1986, and they had two children.

Stockton Rush was the former Director of Communications at OceanGate.