OceanGate CEO's Wife Is a Descendent of a Famous Couple Who Died on the Titanic

By Ashley Turner

The OceanGate executive piloting the submersible on its tragic dive was married to the descendent of a couple who perished in the shipwreck he was seeking. Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, is the great-great-grandaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, who remained on the sinking Titanic to ensure others escaped to safety, reported NPR. Their real-life story inspired the poignant scene in James Cameron's movie in which an elderly couple embraces as water rushes into their cabin. 

According to her LinkedIn page, Wendy is OceanGate's communications director and has been involved with team Titanic expeditions since 2021. She is also the direct descendant of Minnie Weil, one of the seven Straus siblings. The New York Times first reported the connection, confirmed to NPR on Thursday by the Straus Historical Society, an educational nonprofit, and through genealogical records. During this time, Minnie married Richard Weil, Sr., and they had a son, Richard Weil Jr. Richard Jr.'s son, Richard Weil III, is Rush's father. The New York Times mentioned Wendy's late grandfather in its announcement of her wedding in 1986.

Wednesday night, more than three days into the search and just hours before the submersible was due to run out of air, the Straus Historical Society tweeted a link to the Times' story. "Our thoughts are with the loved ones of those aboard the lost submersible," it wrote. "We hold continued hope that the crewmembers will be rescued." At the time of his death at the age of 67, Isidor Straus, a businessman, and a politician, was co-owner of the Macy's department store with his brother and had represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives at one time. 

In 2017, Paul Kurzman, their great-grandson, told Country Living that Isidor and Ida met in New York City in their early 20s, fell in love, and stayed very much in love. He said the two were often seen holding hands, hugging and kissing, displays of affection that were not common for people of their status at that time. "One time they were even caught 'necking!' And that behavior lasted well into their later years," Kurzman said. "They had something truly special and it's something us progeny treasure a great deal."

On the night of April 14, 1912, the couple was traveling back from Europe aboard the Titanic when disaster erupted. As the ship began sinking, women and children were evacuated into lifeboats. As Kurzman told TODAY in 2017, Ida, 63, assumed Isidor would follow her. The officer in charge of that lifeboat recognized him and was willing to let Isidor board. "And, my great-grandfather said, 'No. Until I see that every woman and child on board this ship is in a lifeboat, I will not enter into a lifeboat myself,'" said Kurzman, whose grandmother, the Straus' oldest daughter, Sara Straus, told the story to him. After climbing out of the lifeboat, she took off her full-length mink coat and gave it to her maid, who was later rescued. When the maid returned the coat to Straus' children, they refused to accept it. 

"She basically said, 'We have lived our whole life together and if you are going to remain on the boat and to die as the boat sinks, I will remain on the boat with you. We will not leave one another after our long and wonderful marriage together," Kurzman said. He said that's the last time either was seen alive: A "great wave" hit the ship and carried them into the ocean. Their memorial service at Carnegie Hall attracted so many mourners that all could not fit inside, according to the New York Times in May 1912. Weeks after the tragedy, a ship recovered Isidor's body and a locket containing photographs of his children, but Ida's remains were never found. As part of their funeral arrangements, their family collected water from the North Atlantic in an urn and buried them in a mausoleum in New York City.

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