Hannah Stocking
$4 million
Stockton Rush’s net worth was estimated between $12 million and $25 million at the time of his death, derived from his family’s oil and shipping fortune, his co-founding and operation of OceanGate Inc., and various private investments. Rush died on June 18, 2023, when the OceanGate Titan submersible imploded during a descent to the wreck of the RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic, killing all five people aboard.
Updated March 2026: According to the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Report released in August 2025, the Titan implosion was attributed to catastrophic structural failure caused by Rush’s repeated disregard for safety warnings and established engineering standards. The report recommended that, had Rush survived, charges of negligent homicide would have been appropriate. Ongoing civil lawsuits against OceanGate and Rush’s estate were active as of early 2026.
Richard Stockton Rush III was born on March 31, 1962, in San Francisco, California, into a family with deep roots in American industry. He was a direct descendant of Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also related to the Iselin family, connected to the early American shipping industry. Rush attended Princeton University, graduating in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering. He subsequently earned a flight engineer certificate and became the youngest person at the time to achieve a jet transport rating, having obtained that certification at age 19 while still pursuing his degree.
After Princeton, Rush worked as a flight test engineer at McDonnell Douglas on the F-15 Eagle program — one of the more technically demanding positions in aeronautics engineering. He later transitioned into the private aerospace and exploration sectors. In 2009, he co-founded OceanGate Inc. in Everett, Washington, alongside Guillermo Söhnlein. The company developed crewed submersibles for deep-sea research and, eventually, paying tourist expeditions.
OceanGate’s flagship vessel, the Titan, was a 22-foot carbon fiber and titanium submersible designed to reach depths of 4,000 meters — deep enough to reach the Titanic wreck at approximately 3,800 meters below sea level. Beginning in 2021, OceanGate began selling seats on Titanic expeditions for $250,000 per person. Rush served as the Titan’s pilot on multiple dives, including the fatal June 2023 mission.
Multiple deep-sea engineers and industry figures had raised written safety concerns about the Titan’s hull design, particularly its carbon fiber construction — a material not traditionally used for pressure vessels in repeated deep-dive cycles. Rush dismissed these concerns publicly and did not seek certification from independent marine safety organizations for the submersible. A Netflix documentary, Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, released in June 2025, examined the warnings Rush received and ignored, according to Esquire.
Stockton Rush married Wendy Weil in 1986. Wendy is a granddaughter of Maxfield Weil, heir to a Pacific Mail Steamship Company fortune — meaning both Rush and his wife came from families with historic maritime connections. The couple had two children, Ben Rush and Quincy Rush, and lived in the Seattle, Washington, area. Rush was known for his passion for aviation and ocean exploration, and frequently described his approach to safety as deliberately unconventional — a position that drew both admirers in early OceanGate promotional materials and severe critics within the submersible engineering community.
Rush died on June 18, 2023, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet. All five were killed instantly when the Titan suffered a catastrophic implosion at depth. The U.S. Coast Guard concluded the disaster in August 2025 was caused by structural failure rooted in Rush’s engineering decisions, as detailed in their final investigation report covered by ABC News.
Stockton Rush’s net worth was estimated between $12 million and $25 million at the time of his death in June 2023. His wealth came from family inheritance connected to American oil and shipping fortunes, OceanGate equity, and various private investments. His estate has been subject to ongoing litigation since the Titan disaster.
Stockton Rush died on June 18, 2023, when the OceanGate Titan submersible imploded during its descent to the Titanic wreck site approximately 3,800 meters below the surface of the North Atlantic. The implosion killed all five occupants instantly. A U.S. Coast Guard investigation concluded in August 2025 that the disaster resulted from the carbon fiber hull’s structural failure, caused by Rush’s repeated dismissal of engineering safety warnings.
Stockton Rush was 61 years old when he died on June 18, 2023. He was born on March 31, 1962, in San Francisco, California. He had been scheduled to turn 62 later that year.
Stockton Rush’s wife was Wendy Weil Rush, whom he married in 1986. Wendy is a granddaughter of Maxfield Weil, heir to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company fortune. The couple had two children together and lived in the Seattle, Washington, area at the time of Rush’s death.
OceanGate Inc. was a private submersible tourism company co-founded by Rush in 2009. Its primary commercial offering was crewed dives to the Titanic wreck site aboard the Titan submersible, priced at $250,000 per person per expedition. The company operated out of Everett, Washington, and conducted multiple paid Titanic expeditions before the fatal June 2023 mission.
Stockton Rush graduated from Princeton University in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering. He was also notably the youngest person at the time to obtain a jet transport rating, achieving the certification at age 19 during his studies, as documented by Princeton Alumni Weekly.