Paul Haber

Paul Haber is a former career soldier- a Marine, then Special Forces (Green Beret) and Ranger. After retiring from the service, he held several jobs, including security officer, bodyguard and martial arts instructor, before "finding his niche" with the Arizona Department of Corrections; progressing from Officer, to Sergeant, to a type of counselor called Corrections Officer III, until taking an early retirement in 2008. After experiencing military hand-to-hand combat and, in 1966, his first Karate lesson, he was hooked. Since then, wherever his duties-and his life- took him, he would continue to study whatever art was available, earning Black Belt ranking in eleven separate arts, and Master rating in two. His personal life was not quite as successful. Ten years after a marriage to a woman he barely knew, he became divorced and hurried into another, against the advice of his parents and friends. He didn't realize at the time that he was, in great measure, the cause of the split with his first wife. His career took him away from home a great deal, leaving his young bride to raise his seven children- five of which were from his first marriage. In fact, his oldest daughter was only thirteen years younger than his wife. Fortunately, his second wife, Kyehwa, would not give up on him, despite the usual- and some not so usual- problems in their marriage. Her upbringing and her beliefs were strong enough that she persevered, and slowly taught him the meaning of love, responsibility and marriage. Shortly after retiring from Corrections, Paul was suddenly struck down with a ruptured small intestine, which brought him hours, possibly minutes, from a painful death. This is the story of that time, what he learned and the beginning of a new way of life.