Uri Bar, an Israeli who had been working in Georgia as a tour guide for the past few years, was found dead Monday near the border between Georgia and Russia, Maariv reported Wednesday.
Local authorities spent hours searching for Bar after his tour group reported him missing, and found his body later that evening. Bar likely slipped into a gorge in the Kazabgi region during a sunrise hike.
Bar, 58, was a Navy captain for 25 years who was discharged for early retirement at 43. He lived in Haifa, working as a ventilation systems engineer, before moving to Georgia two years ago to work on a project for the international defense electronics company Elbit Systems.
"He said it was a shame to live in this beautiful country without traveling, [so] he left Elbit and began to guide trips in Georgia," his daughter, Zohar Golan, told Maariv. "He was a man who loved freedom."
Bar, 58, is survived by six children and his wife Meira, who also worked as a tour guide in Georgia.
The Israeli consulate in Georgia and the Department for Israelis Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been working with the family since Bar was pronounced missing, and are transporting Bar's body, which he requested be donated to scientific research, to Israel, where it will arrive Thursday.