Good Samaritan dies trying to rescue 12 on sinking boat
Robert Dykes never lost his country roots.
Even after becoming the founder and president of a successful oil and gas company and leading a lavish lifestyle, flying to different destinations in his own helicopter and plane, Dykes was a man from a humble upbringing in Sheridan, Wyoming, at heart. And the name of his nearly 50-foot boat bore testament to that: Country Boy.
Dykes, 70, was out on the Palm Beach Inlet a quarter-mile offshore aboard Country Boy on the afternoon of April 16 when he saw another boat with nine children and three adults start to fill with water and sink. Attempting to rescue them would be the last act of Dykes’ life, a life his longtime friend said was full of adventure.
An investigator’s report from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office says Dykes jumped into the water to come to the rescue, but the rear right side of a commercial towboat collided with the rear right side of Country Boy, and Dykes was hit by the boats.
An autopsy report says Dykes was hit on the head and neck by the two boats and died from blunt-force injuries.
A woman aboard the 24-foot sinking boat watched the crash happen,
the investigator’s report says. She told authorities they first went to Peanut Island to go tubing and then headed into the inlet, but the water was rough and splashed into the front of their boat.
The 12 people aboard walked to the back of the boat, and it started to sink,
the report says. She called 911 twice.
Dykes dove into the water just south of the jetty, meeting an unrelenting current and deep water. The woman said she saw Dykes get trapped between Country Boy and the red commercial towboat, which had the
name TowBoatsUS on the side, the report says.
A U.S. Coast Guard special agent told the forensic investigator that another man on the Country Boy pulled Dykes from the water onto the back of Dykes’ boat.
No criminal charges have been filed in Dykes’ death, the report says. The 12 people were all rescued.
Cary Sowers, 61, said Dykes was his friend of 20 years and viewed him as an older brother.
He described Dykes as an “adrenaline junkie” who took him on trips in his helicopter, hung out with celebrities and raced his two NASCAR cars at the Colorado National Speedway.
“He had that moxie that you can’t buy,” Sowers said. “He always led; he never followed. There was always a wake behind him.”
Sowers said Dykes worked as a dishwasher at an A&W restaurant in Sheridan at just 13 years old. He wanted to play basketball, and his mother let him with the caveat that he finish his homework and go to work on time, Sowers said.
When Sowers learned about what led up to his friend’s death, he said it did not surprise him to know that Dykes attempted to save people he saw in trouble. He knew Dykes to help others in any way he could.
“He really was a country boy,” Sowers said. “When I saw the back of that boat … I almost broke down crying.”
When Dykes came back to visit Sowers and other friends in Wyoming, where he owned a ranch, Sowers said he “had a little sparkle of Florida on him” with the bold clothes he’d wear.
And when he’d come back to the ranch, Dykes didn’t hesitate to jump on a backhoe, excavator or bulldozer to work the land.
“He was really loyal to Wyoming because a lot of guys don’t make it out of here and get big,” Sowers said. “He was kind of that guy that made it out of Wyoming.”
Two of Dykes’ sons now work for his company, Family Tree Oil and Gas Corporation, based in Denver, according to the company’s website. Dykes’ relatives could not be reached this week.
Dykes served for four years in the Coast Guard and graduated from North Texas State University with a business administration bachelor’s degree in real estate and finance, his biography on the site says. He worked for Texas Utilities “and then moved back to Wyoming with his parents and opened a restaurant.
He founded Family Tree Oil and Gas Corporation with his parents in 1978, taking it over fully two years later, the website says.
At his funeral members of the Coast Guard presented Dykes with a posthumous medal for his rescue attempt, Sowers said. Some traveled for hours to make it to his funeral, and his loved ones had a recent memorial celebration in Palm Beach.
“That’s what Bob would have wanted — a big party, not a funeral,” Sowers said.