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Former AZ State Trooper And Co-Founder Of Make-A-Wish Dies At 77

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The co-founder of the Make-A-Wish organization has died.

Frank Shankwitz, 77, was a former Arizona state trooper and founded the organization in 1980 to grant the wishes of children dealing with critical illnesses. He and five others began Make-A-Wish when they helped a 7-year-old Phoenix boy battling leukemia be a highway patrol officer for a day. Shankwitz was a patrol officer with the Department of Public Safety from 1972 until he retired in 1996. A cause of death was not immediately announced.