Virginia Tech Class Rings
Lost and Found Class Rings
If you have found a Tech Class Ring, please check for a name and/or social security number on the inside of the ring. Contact Shirley Fleet at the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, fleets@vt.edu or call 540/231-6285. Give us the name, year and college, and any other identifying information on the class ring to help us find the owner.
If you have lost your Tech Class Ring, you may leave your name and contact number with Shirley Fleet at fleets@vt.edu or 540/231-6285.
Lost and Found Ring Stories
Class Rings Returned to Their Owners
You never know where a Virginia Tech class ring might turn up. They've been found in a reef in the West Indies, in a school gutter, and in a parachute drop zone. Many of these rings find their way back to their owners.
In January, British tourist Ian Williams found a Virginia Tech class ring buried in a sandy reef a few miles off the Cayman Islands. He e-mailed the Virginia Tech webmaster, who forwarded the request for information about the person whose name was inscribed inside the ring to the Virginia Tech Alumni Association. They sent Williams the address of the owner, James Slaght (ARCH '88) of Irondale, Alaska, who had lost the ring on a diving trip the previous month.
A Congressional Budget Office employee was cleaning a gutter at a D.C. -area elementary school during a recent volunteer clean-up day when she found a Virginia Tech class ring. The finder, Clare Doherty, mailed it to the Alumni Association, where it was identified and returned to John Burge (BAD '67) of Locust Grove, Virginia. According to Burge, the ring was stolen in a February 1995 burglary.
Charles Bowser, a paratrooper at a Fort Bragg, North Carolina drop zone, was searching for his watch, lost during a drop. Instead, he found a ring embedded in a lump of clay soil. Bowser had the ring cleaned and discovered in the inscription that it belonged to LTC Hal Maynard Johnson (SOC '70) of Woodbridge, Virginia. Bowser found Johnson's address through the Alumni Association office.
- From the December, 1996 issue of the Virginia Tech Magazine.
Class Ring Unearthed After 40 Years
Paul Brantley, Jr. (Agricultural Engineering '51) was so proud of his class ring he wore it even before the Ring Dance. After graduation, he wore the garnet ring to Germany, where he was stationed until 1954. When Brantley returned and went into farming in Ivor, Virginia, he began wearing the ring only on special occasions.
In 1957, the ring disappeared. He and Frances, his wife, searched everywhere, including a vacation spot on the James River. No luck.
In 1997, 40 years later, Brantley received a surprising phone call. Michelle Mutter of Deep Creek, Virginia had found the ring while tilling her garden. Deep Creek is about 40 miles away and not connected to Ivor by any waterway. Brantley's name and hometown of Ivor were still barely visible on the inside.
How his class ring ended up in a town where Brantley had never set foot will probably remain a mystery. Brantley doesn't wear the ring much now, because it fits only on his pinkie.
During the years the ring was missing, Brantley told himself, "It's just a material thing. I graduated so it doesn't make any difference. I have the diploma to prove it." But Brantley is glad to have the ring back. "I keep it on top of my chest of drawers where I can see it once in a while and ask, 'Where have you been?'"
- From the Spring, 1998 issue of the Virginia Tech Magazine.