Loved ones and friends of Patrick Kelly are remembering the 72-year-old diver as a kind family man after his body was recovered from Lake Michigan on Wednesday.
Kelly, of Winthrop Harbor, went missing in Lake Michigan on Tuesday after he failed to resurface on a dive exploring a shipwreck several miles off the coast of Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
His body was recovered from the area near the SS Wisconsin on Wednesday morning, where the US Coast Guard used sonar and remotely operated robotic vehicles in the search.
Friends of Kelly’s at the Winthrop Harbor Yacht Club affectionately referred to him as “PK.”
“PK was very friendly, it didn’t matter if it was a stranger that came through the door, he would greet you and make you feel welcome here,” said friend Rich Boren.
Kelly, a passionate and experienced diver, dived about six miles off the Wisconsin-Illinois border Tuesday morning at the wreck of the SS Wisconsin, which lies about 125 feet deep.
The SS Wisconsin was a steamship that sank in 1929 during a storm. Nine crew members were killed. The captain was pulled from the water but later died on shore, according to the Wisconsin Shipwreck website.
Kelly attempted to retrieve a severed line that could be a hazard to other divers and never completed his ascent.
“He’s done thousands of dives all over the world. He’s done hundreds, if not, thousands of dives at this particular site. He considered himself an expert at this site, a caretaker at this site,” friend Courtney Smith said. “He went down for this selfless act to make sure it didn’t do it when he thought it was a danger.”
Those close to Kelly told NBC Chicago that “there aren’t enough superlatives” to describe the longtime diver and friend.