Fire departments from numerous Wisconsin and Illinois counties respond to help search for a missing scuba diver, identified as Patrick Kelly, 72, of Winthrop Harbor, (inset) on Lake Michigan east of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on Tuesday. | Background Photo: Remi Merrill

Friends of a Winthrop Harbor man and experienced scuba diver are remembering him after he died on his birthday while diving at a shipwreck site on Lake Michigan.

The United States Coast Guard received a distress call around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday from a boat at the S.S. Wisconsin shipwreck regarding a scuba diver who had not returned to the surface.

The Kenosha County, Wisconsin Sheriff’s Office said numerous agencies responded to assist in the search operation, which soon became a recovery operation due to the amount of time that the diver had been missing.

The missing scuba diver was recovered around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Fire departments from numerous Wisconsin and Illinois counties respond to help search for a missing scuba diver on Lake Michigan east of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on Tuesday. | Photo: Remi Merrill

The diver was positively identified as Patrick Kelly, 72, of Winthrop Harbor.

Sheriff’s officials said Kelly had been diving at the shipwreck of the S.S. Wisconsin, which is approximately six miles out from the Pleasant Prairie coastline in water over 120 feet deep.

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NBC Chicago reported Kelly was attempting to retrieve a severed line that was a potential hazard to other divers.

Courtney Smith, a friend of Kelly, said the man has done thousands of dives around the world, including hundreds at S.S. Wisconsin shipwreck site.

“He considered himself an expert on this site, he considered himself a caretaker of this site. And he went down for this selfless act of making sure that it didn’t have what he thought was a hazard,” Smith told the news channel.

His wife, who was on board their boat, sent out a distress call requesting immediate help after Kelly did not resurface when he was scheduled to do so.

The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, Pleasant Prairie Fire Rescue Department, the United States Coast Guard and numerous other agencies deployed their rescue boats to the dive location after receiving the call.

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Fire departments from numerous Wisconsin and Illinois counties respond to help search for a missing scuba diver on Lake Michigan east of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on Tuesday. | Photo: Remi Merrill

Poor water conditions led to the recovery efforts on Tuesday being postponed around 5 p.m. until they resumed Wednesday morning when conditions were safer, sheriff’s officials said.

Sonar and several remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were used which led to Kelly’s body being located approximately 125 feet below the surface on the bottom of Lake Michigan in the area of the S.S. Wisconsin.

Sheriff’s officials said recovery efforts were successful in bringing Kelly’s body back to the surface and shore.

“It’s a devasting loss to not only the Winthrop Harbor community but the North Point Marina family,” a worker at the marina said.

Fire departments from numerous Wisconsin and Illinois counties respond to help search for a missing scuba diver on Lake Michigan east of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on Tuesday. | Photo: Remi Merrill

Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner thanked assisting fire agencies that came from Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee and Walworth counties in Wisconsin as well as Lake, McHenry and Cook counties in Illinois.

“The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department extends our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and the diving community who were all impacted by this tragic event,” the department said.

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“PK was very friendly, didn’t matter if it was a stranger that walked through the door, he was going to greet you and make you feel welcome here,” friend Rich Boren told NBC Chicago.

Those who need to talk to someone following the incident can call the Kenosha Human Development Services Crisis Line, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 262-657-7188.