Mr Frederick Ickes Merrick¹ was born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, USA on 2 July 1876. He was the eldest son of manufacturer Frederick Silas Merrick and the former Clara Ickes. He had two younger siblings, Silas and Marguerite. 

An architect by profession, Merrick was well-known in Pennsylvania and further afield and he designed numerous homes, hotels, churches and other grand buildings; some of his works included the Empire Hotel in Manhattan and the First Presbyterian Church and the Emery office buildings, both in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

Mr Merrick and his mother Clara boarded the Carpathia as first cabin passengers and were travelling to Europe for a protracted stay of up to two years.

The Pittsburgh Press (17 April 1912) states that the pair were accompanied by Merrick’s father, but there is no evidence he was aboard. 

The two-year stay in Europe was not to be and Mr Merrick and his mother returned to the USA aboard the Amerika in July 1912. 

A few years after the Titanic disaster, Merrick settled in Pittsburgh and in February 1914 was married to Eleanor DePuy (b. 1882), with whom he had four children. He remained a sought-after architect and well as dabbling in real estate. 

Frederick Merrick died aged 83 in Pittsburgh on 23 February 1960 due to complications from peritonitis; he was cremated the following day in Homewood Crematory, Pittsburgh.