Stockton Rush

Richard Stockton Rush III (March 31, 1962 – June 18, 2023) was an American businessman and engineer, best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate, a deep-sea exploration company. Following graduation from Princeton University, Rush worked for McDonnell Douglas as a flight test engineer on their F-15 program. He later worked for BlueView Technologies and the Museum of Flight in different capacities. In 2009, Rush created OceanGate with Guillermo Söhnlein and was the only founder at OceanGate following Söhnlein's departure in 2013. On June 18, 2023, he died along with four others in the Titan submersible implosion during an attempt to visit the wreck of the Titanic in OceanGate's Titan submersible. Early life and education Rush was born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, California, on March 31, 1962. He was the youngest of five children born to Richard Stockton Rush Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Ellen Rush (née Davies) of San Francisco. His maternal grandfather was Ralph K. Davies. His maternal grandmother, Louise Davies, was a philanthropist and the namesake of the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Through his father, he was a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton and physician Benjamin Rush.