Henry West Hicks, 60, killed, after a boating accident off Egmont Key in Manatee County.

A well-known Bay area attorney died Saturday night from an apparent drowning sustained in a boating mishap off Egmont Key.

Henry West Hicks, 60, was attempting to retrieve an anchor to a 27-foot boat just after 7 p.m. when something went wrong.

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report Hicks was approximately three miles west of Anna Maria Island in Manatee County when he died. The incident is still under investigation.

“He was a great guy, a straight-shooter,” said Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Robert Foster. “I know he coached youth basketball at St. John’s Episcopal Day School and he was really good with the kids. This is just very, very sad.”

Hicks had been practicing law in the Bay area for over three decades. He was a Florida Bar certified Real Estate expert and a native of North Carolina states his biography on his law firm’s website.

Hicks moved to Tampa in 1979 and served as counsel for an international shipping company. His practice featured a wide range of services including business transactions, commercial litigation, mortgage foreclosure, landlord tenant disputes, trusts and real estate.

In addition to his law practice Hicks also served as an adjunct professor in the graduate school of education at Nova University. He also owned and operated a handful of businesses over the past 30 years including a strawberry farm, a hotel, a mobile home park and a restaurant.