Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush who was captaining the submersible that went missing Sunday during an exploration to view Titanic’s wreckage, is a descendant of two first-class passengers who died when the iconic ocean liner sank on its debut voyage.
Rush is a great-great-granddaughter of Isidor Straus and his wife Ida Straus, who were two of the richest persons aboard the Titanic.
A fictionalised version of the Straus couple’s story was shown by director James Cameron, in his iconic 1997 film about the Titanic’s sunken fate. The film shows a poignant shot of an older couple embracing in bed as the waters rise around their cabin.
Isidor Straus’s body was found at sea roughly two weeks after the Titanic sank, according to New York Times. Ida Straus’s remains were never recovered.
New York Times cited archival records to assert Wendy Rush’s ancestry with the couple who died during Titanic’s debut voyage.
Who is Wendy Rush?
According to her LinkedIn page, Wendy Rush serves as the communications director of Ocean Gate and is a longtime board member of the company’s charitable foundation. She has reportedly participated in three OceanGate expeditions to the Titanic wreckage in the last two years.
Wendy Rush, born Wendy Hollings Weik, married Stockton Rush in 1986, according to the New York Times.
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Wendy Rush descended from one of the Strauses’ daughters, Minnie, who married Dr. Richard Weil in 1905.
Their son, Richard Weil Jr., later served as president of Macy’s New York, and his son, Dr. Richard Weil III, is Rush’s father, according to Joan Adler, the executive director of the Straus Historical Society cited by the New York Times.
Why Titanic’s sunken fate in spotlight again?
The spotlight is back on how Titanic sank as the world looks transfixed amid a frantic rescue effort for a lost Titan submersible, with five people on-board, near the site of the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean.
The currently unfolding events surrounding the missing submersible and the race against time to rescue its potential survivors have captivated people worldwide.
