As the husband of Margaret Fishback Powers [see entry], the Coquitlam woman who claimed ownership of the greeting card poem 'Footprints', Paul Powers is co-director of their Little Peoples Ministry. His memoir called Too Tough to Cry (HarperPerennial, 1998) recalls how his abusive father beat him for crying after the death of his mother and his puppy. Vowing never to cry again, Paul Powers, then Paul LaVern, became bitter and violent himself as a petty thief who eventually murdered a woman for $500. He discovered Jesus and redemption, etc., and was ordained as a Baptist preacher by the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago in 1973.

[BCBW 2004] "Religion"