CALDWELL — Former Canyon County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Al Showalter died Friday after battling several medical complications during the past four years.

Showalter’s daughter, Gerri Boyer, said her father had suffered from complications after a heart surgery in 2002 and an open craniotomy in 2004. He died at St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia, Wash.

Showalter, 72, spent 12 years as chief deputy under former Canyon County Sheriff George Nourse from 1993 to 2005. During his employment at the sheriff’s office, Boyer said her father earned several influential grants for the agency and started programs and services still in operation today, including the Sheriff’s Inmate Labor Detail.

More than being an effective leader, Boyer said Showalter was a good person and was valued for his honestly, loyalty, straight-forwardness and dedication to whatever cause he believed in.

“One of the best ways to describe him was that he lived to serve others,” she said. “He loved to serve others.”