shane41
Sr. Member
- #1
Thread Owner
You see those stories once in a while where someone finds a class ring and tracks down the owner.
Drew MacDonald has a whole box of 'em.
Drew is an estate-planning attorney from Menasha with an office in Appleton. He spends his days telling clients how to pass along their treasures.
"And here I sit with a boxful of heirlooms that don't belong to me," he said Tuesday.
They belong to N.L.K. from the Burlington High School class of 1979. And to G.V.P. from the Pulaski High School class of 1975. And to someone whose name on the ring band looks like Walter Diay or a spelling close to that. His 1940 ring from the University of Notre Dame got away from him somehow.
Here's the thing: Drew didn't find any of these rings. His dad did. John MacDonald retired as a maintenance manager from Allen-Bradley and took up treasure hunting around 1980.
The father, a history buff who lived in Muskego, got himself an underwater metal detector and a wetsuit. He combed beaches and lake bottoms near resorts and camps, mostly in Waukesha and surrounding counties but occasionally elsewhere in Wisconsin or in northern Illinois.
Before long, he had rings and watches by the dozens, each one the result of an "oops" moment while someone was swimming or on a raft or in a boat. He had boxes of buckles that used to adorn swimsuits. Drew showed me dozens of badly discolored dimes his father fished out, including some of the older Mercury dimes.
"He had bags and bags of that stuff. My dad saved everything," Drew said.
After the father's death, his stuff eventually went to Drew and his brothers. The brothers also have hundreds of other rings, including wedding bands, but they're not traceable. Drew has the school rings, more than three dozen in all, and lately they've begun to weigh more heavily on his mind.
So he is trying to track down the owners. It wasn't too hard to find Chuck Doherty, who lives in Grafton and is product manager at Fiserv (and a former Milwaukee Sentinel reporter). His name was etched on a ring from Wauwatosa East High School.
Chuck bought the ring as a sophomore and had owned it exactly two days when it slipped off his finger and sank out of sight in a 20-foot-deep area of Booth Lake near East Troy.
"I didn't even try to find it. I was bummed out. I thought that was the last I'd ever see it," Chuck said.
That was 33 years ago. So Chuck was quite surprised, and a little skeptical, when Drew called him the other day and said he might have his high school ring. Chuck had bought a replacement ring, and he knew that one wasn't lost. When Drew mentioned the water rescue, Chuck realized it was the ring that got away in 1976.
The ring spent an unknown number of years under water, but it looks brand new. Chuck now carries it on his key chain for good luck.
Drew also returned a ring to a man whose name he found on a ring from Portage High School class of 1982. The man had taken his father's advice and bought the ring one size too large so it would fit him longer. It fell off while he swam.
That man was startled by Drew's call, too. "He asked me how much are you asking for it," Drew said.
The answer is zero. Drew doesn't want any payment for these rings. For him, the satisfaction comes from seeing the rings reunited with their owners.
"Gold prices are through the roof right now, but I never thought a good idea would be to melt them down," Drew said.
He is trying to trace the rings by visiting classmates.com on the Internet, by Googling student and school names, and by contacting the schools and alumni associations to match up initials with particular graduating classes.
Some examples
Not all the rings are readable, but let me give you some of the ones that are, just in case one of them is yours:
South Milwaukee High School class of 1957 with the initials D.J.B.; Nathan Hale High School class of 1982 with the name Thomas Reilly Jr.; Rockford West class of 1975 with the initials J.A.S.; Kewaunee High School class of 1977 with the initials G.R.; Central High School class of 1971 with the initials J.B.; Lyons High School class of 1967 with the initials B.L.N.; St. Joan Antida High School class of 1979 with the name Rhonda Schleicher (there's one in the phone book but the number has been disconnected); Maria High School class of 1970 with the initials C.H.P.; Mukwonago High School class of 1979 with the initials D.W.; Fair Park High School (possibly Louisiana) class of 1932 with the initials F.R.Z.; Oak Park and River Forest High School class of 1970 with the initials E.E.G.
For the record, Drew was part of the Muskego High School class of 1982.
"I still have my ring," he said. Hope you enjoy this article from the Milwaukee Journal Shane
Drew MacDonald has a whole box of 'em.
Drew is an estate-planning attorney from Menasha with an office in Appleton. He spends his days telling clients how to pass along their treasures.
"And here I sit with a boxful of heirlooms that don't belong to me," he said Tuesday.
They belong to N.L.K. from the Burlington High School class of 1979. And to G.V.P. from the Pulaski High School class of 1975. And to someone whose name on the ring band looks like Walter Diay or a spelling close to that. His 1940 ring from the University of Notre Dame got away from him somehow.
Here's the thing: Drew didn't find any of these rings. His dad did. John MacDonald retired as a maintenance manager from Allen-Bradley and took up treasure hunting around 1980.
The father, a history buff who lived in Muskego, got himself an underwater metal detector and a wetsuit. He combed beaches and lake bottoms near resorts and camps, mostly in Waukesha and surrounding counties but occasionally elsewhere in Wisconsin or in northern Illinois.
Before long, he had rings and watches by the dozens, each one the result of an "oops" moment while someone was swimming or on a raft or in a boat. He had boxes of buckles that used to adorn swimsuits. Drew showed me dozens of badly discolored dimes his father fished out, including some of the older Mercury dimes.
"He had bags and bags of that stuff. My dad saved everything," Drew said.
After the father's death, his stuff eventually went to Drew and his brothers. The brothers also have hundreds of other rings, including wedding bands, but they're not traceable. Drew has the school rings, more than three dozen in all, and lately they've begun to weigh more heavily on his mind.
So he is trying to track down the owners. It wasn't too hard to find Chuck Doherty, who lives in Grafton and is product manager at Fiserv (and a former Milwaukee Sentinel reporter). His name was etched on a ring from Wauwatosa East High School.
Chuck bought the ring as a sophomore and had owned it exactly two days when it slipped off his finger and sank out of sight in a 20-foot-deep area of Booth Lake near East Troy.
"I didn't even try to find it. I was bummed out. I thought that was the last I'd ever see it," Chuck said.
That was 33 years ago. So Chuck was quite surprised, and a little skeptical, when Drew called him the other day and said he might have his high school ring. Chuck had bought a replacement ring, and he knew that one wasn't lost. When Drew mentioned the water rescue, Chuck realized it was the ring that got away in 1976.
The ring spent an unknown number of years under water, but it looks brand new. Chuck now carries it on his key chain for good luck.
Drew also returned a ring to a man whose name he found on a ring from Portage High School class of 1982. The man had taken his father's advice and bought the ring one size too large so it would fit him longer. It fell off while he swam.
That man was startled by Drew's call, too. "He asked me how much are you asking for it," Drew said.
The answer is zero. Drew doesn't want any payment for these rings. For him, the satisfaction comes from seeing the rings reunited with their owners.
"Gold prices are through the roof right now, but I never thought a good idea would be to melt them down," Drew said.
He is trying to trace the rings by visiting classmates.com on the Internet, by Googling student and school names, and by contacting the schools and alumni associations to match up initials with particular graduating classes.
Some examples
Not all the rings are readable, but let me give you some of the ones that are, just in case one of them is yours:
South Milwaukee High School class of 1957 with the initials D.J.B.; Nathan Hale High School class of 1982 with the name Thomas Reilly Jr.; Rockford West class of 1975 with the initials J.A.S.; Kewaunee High School class of 1977 with the initials G.R.; Central High School class of 1971 with the initials J.B.; Lyons High School class of 1967 with the initials B.L.N.; St. Joan Antida High School class of 1979 with the name Rhonda Schleicher (there's one in the phone book but the number has been disconnected); Maria High School class of 1970 with the initials C.H.P.; Mukwonago High School class of 1979 with the initials D.W.; Fair Park High School (possibly Louisiana) class of 1932 with the initials F.R.Z.; Oak Park and River Forest High School class of 1970 with the initials E.E.G.
For the record, Drew was part of the Muskego High School class of 1982.
"I still have my ring," he said. Hope you enjoy this article from the Milwaukee Journal Shane
Hope you'll be able to return a few 
