Wendy Weil, widow of Titan pilot Stockton Rush, in the OceanGate storm

In her Linkedin photo, Wendy Rush wears the smile of an accomplished woman, full of confidence and determination. “Communications director and member of the OceanGate expedition,” reads his profile description, emblazoned with the logo of OceanGate, a company that specializes in submarines for tourism and exploration. The Washington, D.C.-based privately held company, founded in 2009 by her husband Stockton Rush and Guillermo Schönlein, also promises expeditions on the Titan submarine to visit the wreck of the Titanic, which lies in the abyss of the Atlantic Ocean.

Video: Closer to My God, Titanic Sinking Scene

Lots of caveats

Until now kept secret, OceanGate surprised everyone on June 18 when the Titan ship disappeared, then in full excursion. Five passengers on board: British pilot Hamish Harding, French scientist Paul-Henri Nargollet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulman; as well as Stockton Rush, the company’s CEO and the pilot of the missing ship. After several days of amazing research in the depths of the sea, the world learned of their death in a “catastrophic explosion” near the shipwreck on June 22.

Since then, several media outlets have pointed out the recklessness of the OceanGate founder, as he had been warned by the scientific community about his submarine’s failures for years. Guillermo Sjönlein, its co-founder, who left the company in 2013, also had to speak out publicly to silence rumors of neglect, stating that “risk mitigation is a core part of the business culture.” Today, only Wendy Rush, the only survivor of the company, is left to talk about it.

OceanGate’s director of communications and a member of his charity’s board of directors, a sixty-year-old widow does end up at the head of a disgraced company that today has all the trappings of a lifeboat. A mission that falls on the shoulders of the new manager, who has to do everything at once, and who will soon be sued by the bereaved families.

Inheritance and heirs

Facing the storm, Wendy Rush chooses discretion for the moment, although her name, despite herself, appears in the press for more than a week. Article on June 21 New York Times In 1912, he made a connection between himself and a couple who disappeared during the sinking of the Titanic. The businesswoman would actually be a descendant of Ida and Isidore Strauss, one of the wealthiest travelers on the ship, who decided to face their fate by dying hand in hand. . Such a beautiful story that has been immortalized Titanic James Cameron in 1997

Stockton Rush’s widow would therefore be the great-granddaughter of this intrepid couple, a descendant of Minnie, one of their daughters, and her husband, Dr. Richard Vale. Their union produced Richard Weill, Jr., himself the father of Dr. Richard Weill III and Wendy’s grandfather. So his family heritage may explain his fascination with the Titanic.

However, Wendy Rush worked in many different fields before finding her calling. After graduating from the prestigious Princeton University in the USA, he first worked in the field of marketing in San Francisco; then advising magazine publishers. Her father, Dr. Richard Weil III, was director of the organ transplant service at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. His mother, Polly Weil, pursued a career in design, founding her firm, Reynolds & Weil, based in Denver.

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Very little information is circulated about the outlines of the creation of OceanGate with her husband. However, it can be assumed that their shared passion for the sea and the famous jammed ship would have brought them closer. Her marriage to Stockton Rush, on July 6, 1986, was briefly discussed. New York Times Titled “Wendy Vail Marries an Engineer”, it reflects the social status of the Vail family and the genius of her husband-to-be. It wasn’t until twenty-three years of marriage that they took the plunge and created their own business. As director of communications, he has been responsible for OceanGate’s image until now, from the visibility of their missions on social media. Meanwhile, she claims to have joined her late husband on three undersea expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic in 2021, 2022, 2023.

As she mourns the disappearance of him and the other passengers on the Titan today, Wendy Rush will have to respond to move things forward, while many questions are already being raised as the investigation progresses. Did he know the risks of this expedition? Had she warned her husband about the unreliability of the Titan submarines? What is his share of responsibility in all this? He who used to operate in the shadows will have to face the light.

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