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 the 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 to 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 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 Arabian 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."
Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.
