A Homecoming Like No Other: Class Ring Returns to Owner After Being Lost for 50 Years
She was a junior at New Richmond High School in the year of 1966. With a bright future ahead, she kept her eyes fixed on the day that she would walk the stage for graduation. As any up-and-coming senior would do, this NRHS student sought out to purchase a class ring -- that token of class pride and a remembrance piece of her roots.
“I wanted a class ring but didn’t have the money for it. I asked my brother for some help and he lent me the money,” stated this ‘67 NRHS graduate, who has asked to remain anonymous. “After saving up for a bit, I went to pay back my brother and he told me just to accept it as a gift.”
After wearing her ring with pride throughout the course of her senior year, she gave the ring to her fiance, who was enlisted in the Army, at the end of his bootcamp. He was stationed in Georgia at Fort Benning when his barracks was raided and the ring went missing. As unfortunate of a situation that this was, this news only cut deeper because of the significance of the ring.
She stated, “Like I said, my brother gave me that ring as a gift. A few years later, he died in an accident. That was the biggest reason I regretted losing the ring, because it was like my connection to him.”
Flash forward to another military base in Arizona a couple years later. A group of men were resting in their barracks when one of their fellow men got upset and began throwing items in anger - one of those items being the class ring. Thinking that the disgruntled gentleman would eventually want his ring back, a man by the name of Mr. Hirsch picked it up for safe keeping. Time went on, men were re-stationed elsewhere, and the ring was momentarily forgotten.
Years later, Mr. Hirsch rediscovered this class ring and began a quest to return it to it’s rightful owner. In his searching, he came across many New Richmond High Schools throughout the nation. With a few leads that went nowhere and the business of life, the search went on hold yet again.
Time continued and in one final effort, Mr. Hirsch discovered the NR Crest, which was designed by Ricky Boggs, class of 1967. “Without the crest, he wouldn’t have known the connection,” she stated. “I was fortunate in who ended up with the ring because most would have pawned it. Hirsch is a historian and with that background he wanted to connect the dots.”
With a few phone calls and some looks at old yearbooks, Mr. Hirsch found the rings owner nearly 50 years later to the date. The class ring had finally returned home.
“I just counted the ring as lost many, many years ago. When I received the call that my ring had been found, I was just so thrilled,” she stated. “It’s amazing the places this thing traveled, how all the pieces came together, and how I now have that connection to my brother and my school back.”