Monday marks the 112th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912.

Walter Douglas and his wife Mahala from Minnesota were passengers on the ship. The Douglas family’s wealth came from starting the Quaker Oats Company and Douglas Starch Company.

“His peers dubbed him a captain of industry,” said Liz Vandam with the Lake Minnetonka Historical Society. “They considered him to be a man of great integrity.”

By the beginning of 1912, Walter Douglas retired and construction of the family’s palatial mansion in Deephaven overlooking Lake Minnetonka was complete.

“They wanted this house to resemble a French palace,” Vandam said. 

Walter and Mahala took a trip to Europe to buy antique furniture for their new home. The couple bought two first-class tickets on the Titanic for the return trip to America.

“Just by coincidence, this boat fit their schedule,” Vandam said.

On the night of April 15, after the Titanic hit an iceberg, the couple went to where lifeboats were being launched.

“He gets in the boat and puts Mahala and settles her in the boat and declines to stay on when she said, ‘Come sit beside me,'” Vandam said. 

As the ship quickly sank, Walter rushed to help women and children get on lifeboats. Walter was offered a seat on the last one, but again, he declined, saying, “I wouldn’t be a man if I took a seat while there was still a woman that needed to be saved.”

Walter’s body was discovered about a week later.

Mahala continued to live at their Deephaven home until her death in 1945.