For missing submersible passenger Stockton Rush, his ties to the RMS Titanic wreckage go beyond a professional interest—they’re also personal.
After all, Wendy Rush, who is married to the OceanGate Expeditions’ CEO, is the great-great-granddaughter of two of the Titanic’s most famous victims, Ida and Isidor Straus. When the ocean liner began sinking after striking an iceberg in April 1912, Ida refused to leave her husband, who was the co-owner of Macy’s department store, choosing to give up her seat on a lifeboat (where women and children had priority seating) in order to stay with Isidor on board.
As survivors of the disaster later recalled, Isidor and Ida stood arm in arm on the deck as the ship sank.
The moving, tragic story of Isidor and Ida has made such an impact over the years that James Cameron incorporated it into Titanic. The 1997 film paid homage to the pair through an elderly couple who, rather than try to escape, choose to spend their final moments together in bed as the water comes rushing into their room.
Wendy and Stockton married in 1986, per a New York Times wedding announcement.
