Ring Is Back -- Others Want Help

The 1932 Cedar Rapids Washington High School class ring is now on the right finger. The picture at left of Barb Rice of Madison, Wis., wearing it on her pinkie arrived too late for publication with my Monday followup Ramblin' column in The Gazette so I thought I'd post it here.

If you've followed me in the newspaper, you might recall that I wrote about this missing ring on Dec. 16 which prompted some help from readers. For my Dec. 28 column, we identified the most likely person to lose the ring as Elizabeth Jacus. Once her name got out, dozens of folks stepped forward to either say they knew her or offering their assistance. One helper called Elizabeth's son, Steve Rice, in Madison, who then called me.

While Steve, who sent me this picture of his mother, recalled losing a ring, a later call from his sister, Barb, confirmed that she had lost the ring at Lake Macbride. The ring Steve lost, probably at the Bever Park pool, which is where he thought he'd lost a ring, apparently had belonged to his father.

The bottom line is that all has ended well.

And it has prompted a couple of people to ask for additional help in matching up an owner with a lost ring. In both of these cases, I'm not sure I can do anything because the information is too sketchy. But, just in case a reader out there can help, here's the information.

First, here's the plea I received from Linda Williams of Victor (jwillms@netins.net)

"Dave, I've enjoyed your column for many years, and loved your latest "lost and found" story of the class ring. I know you've said before that you're not going to do any more of those stories, but I hope I can change your mind. It would be so nice to find the owner of a 1953 class ring that my son, Nick, found several years ago.

" He was in high school at the time, and was golfing when our golf cart broke down. Future engineer that he was, he tried to repair it on the spot and dropped a small part in the grass. When he couldn't find the part, he returned with our metal detector. I'm not sure if he ever found the missing part but he did find the class ring under the gravel on the cart path.

"Since it had a B for the name of the school I naturally assumed it was from nearby Brooklyn High School, which is now BGM. I called the school but the secretary in the office could find no match for the ring's initials for that year in the old yearbooks, but referred me to a local woman who graduated that year.   She knew of no one that it could belong to either. I called the golf course to see if anyone had reported a lost ring and asked the manager to ask around but heard nothing back. If the ring had no Brooklyn connection, I didn't know where else to look. My son and I would love to return this ring to the owner, or a relative. "

The second plea came from Julie ( A.Brown ) Crozier, a 1978 grad of Washington High School in Cedar Rapids. She wrote:

"Hi Dave, I was reading your story on the class ring and it made me think of my own story. When I was stationed at Paris Island, S.C. in the years 1979 AND 1980 my own class ring from Washington H.S. with the year 1978 and Julie ingraved on the top surrounding the emblem and stone was stolen from me. I always wondered if there might be a way to find this ring for it was about the only present I was given from my parents that meant so much to me. Anyway I was hoping you might have an idea as to how to search for this ring??? Thank youi so much for all your great articles and for all the help you give people."

If you've got ideas for either of these people, let me know.