Leroy Shank, a co-founder of the Yukon Quest, has died, the Yukon Quest said Sunday over its social media platforms.

“We’re incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Yukon Quest co-founder LeRoy Shank,” said a Quest Twitter post.

“LeRoy has made such a profound impact on mushing, and will be greatly missed. We’re sending our deepest condolences to his family and all those who loved him.”

In 1983, Shank, along with Roger Williams, Ron Rosser and William “Willy” Lipps, sat at a table in the Bull’s Eye Saloon in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Talks about a sled dog race from Fairbanks to Whitehorse had come as early as 1976, but it wasn’t until that conversation in the bar did it become more than an idea.

The mushers named the race the “Yukon Quest” to commemorate the Yukon River, which was the historical highway of the North, says the Yukon Quest website.

During the most recent race, Shank travelled along the 1,000-mile trail supporting his granddaughter, Olivia Shank-Neff.

Shank-Neff was making her second attempt at the Quest. In 2019, she had scratched shortly after leaving Dawson City.

One of Shank-Neff’s goals was to complete the race before her grandfather passed away.

She was the 2020 red lantern winner, finishing the race on Feb. 15.

Shank was at the finish line waiting for her, bundled in blankets and sitting in his wheelchair.

“I guess I’ve always been a Grandpa’s girl,” said Shank-Neff at the finish line in Shipyards park next to Shank.

“He’s my best friend, so I just kinda wanted to be like him. So I did it.”

The founders of the race designed the trail to match the routes the prospectors followed to reach the Klondike during the 1898 Gold Rush.

One year after Shank and his fellow mushers had their conversation in the bar, the first Yukon Quest was run with 26 teams leaving Fairbanks.