Paul Maring

Obituary photo

Paul Edward Maring
22 Oct 1942 - 25 Aug 2008

Clubs & Associations

Obituary

Volunteer offered healing touch to those with AIDS by Robert D Davila
Paul Maring, a compassionate massage therapist who gave the healing gift of human touch to people with AIDS, has died at age 65.

Mr. Maring died Aug. 25 of kidney complications related to prostate cancer, friend Richard Randall said.

He was a massage therapist at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in Sacramento in the 1990s. He volunteered his skills with AIDS service groups, including CARES, Hand to Hand and Breaking Barriers. Many clients were denied physical contact by family members, friends and even medical practitioners out of fear of contagion in the early days of disease.

Mr. Maring reached out with his hands and his heart. He spent time before and after each massage listening to his client's troubles coping with illness. He refused to wear latex gloves while gently kneading frail bodies covered with lesions from Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare cancer linked with AIDS.

"One patient in the hospital with KS was refusing all treatment, and Paul was the only one who would see him," said his brother, Dennis. "He gave the guy a great massage, and he began accepting treatment - and he's alive today."

Paul Edward Maring was born in 1942 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was an equestrian as a boy and learned English dressage to show the horses his mother raised on the family's farm in Hopkinton, Iowa. he attended Iowa State Teachers College and was drafted by the Army in 1964.

He began working in health care as a dispensary clerk at Madigan Army Medical Center near Tacoma, Wash. After his discharge in 1966, he was a hospital respiratory therapist in Orange County and served as cardiopulmonary technical director at Mercy General Hospital in Costa Mesa.

He moved to Glendale to own horses and participated in calf-roping and other events in the Los Angeles Gay Rodeo Association. He sold real estate, worked as a carpenter at Universal Studios and was facilities manager for Merv Griffin Studios in Hollywood.

Mr. Maring moved to Placerville in 1992 and lived in Cool before settling in Sacramento. He was an active member and past board member of Capital City Squares, a gay and lesbian square-dancing club.

He was a deeply spiritual man and follower of A Course in Miracles, an introspective belief system. He enjoyed reading books about spirituality and discussing philosophy with friends at bookstores and coffee shops.

"He was gentle and caring," Randall said. "He listened to people and helped change their whole attitude about healing."^[1]

Remembering Paul Maring
Paul Maring, 65, courageously succumbed to complications from cancer on August 25, 2008 while in hospice care. As an avowed student of the Course in Miracles, he asserted "our purpose is to recognize ourselves as the expression of the love of God. I am not my body. I am free."

Paul Edward Maring was born October 22, 1942 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was reared on a farm in Hopkinton, Iowa with his birth mother, Maxine, ad stepfather, Ralph Wilson. He graduated from Maquoketa Valley High School and attended Iowa State Teachers College now the University of Northern Iowa. when asked about his education he stated that he received it from Everywhere.

During the Viet Nam war period, he served as Clerk of the Dispensary of the Psychiatric Unit of Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. He capitalized on that experience to begin a career as a respiratory therapist at Costa Mesa Hospital and later was responsible for organizing a new hospital as the Technical Director of Cardio-Pulmonary medicine at Mercy General Hospital of Costa Mesa, California.. After moving to Glendale, California to have a home with his partner where he could pursue his bobby of horses, he became a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. He joined the Los Angeles Gay Rodeo Association and participated in calf roping and other events. Later, he worked as a carpenter for Universal Studios and eventually obtaining his contractors license, he became the Facilities Manager for Merv Griffin Studios.

He moved with his horses to Placerville and then Cool, California before settling in Sacramento to begin a career as a Massage Therapist, which he practiced until recently. He was instrumental in serving as a Provider to AIDS patients beginning early in the epidemic generously giving of his time working with several agencies. Paul was a long-standing member of Capital City Squares, a gay square dancing club in Sacramento and past Board Member of the organization.

He is survived by his mother, Maxine Wilson, of Hopkinton, Iowas and two brothers. Blayne Maring of Austin, Texas and Dennis Maring of Placerville, California.

He will be remembered most as summed by one:" Your caring, thoughtfulness, and spirituality have been a constant aura that has surrounded you. Those qualities ae often aspired to, but seldom achieved as you have practiced them."^[2]