Class ring lost skipping stones in 1967 found 53 years later in New Hampshire pond
More than 50 years after a man lost his brand new high school class ring, his wife found it in a pond in New Hampshire.
In 1967, Steve Rowell was out skipping stones with his brothers at Drew’s Pond in Barrington, New Hampshire, when his new Spaulding High School class ring slipped off of his finger and into the water, United Press International reported.
“I was really upset because I had bought and paid for that ring by myself,” Steve told WMUR. “And I picked up my bicycle and threw it in the pond also, and stormed off.”
His brothers were able to pull the bike out of the pond, but the ring was nowhere to be found, according to the outlet.
Years later, when Steve’s wife, Kathy, heard the story, she decided she was going to try to find it, she said in a Facebook post.
Kathy and a friend went out on the pond with a metal detector several times to try to track it down, finding other items in the process, but not Steve’s ring.
Finally, on Sept. 27 — 53 years after Steve lost the ring—their luck changed.
Dry conditions had caused the pond to drain, so Kathy Rowell and neighbor Tom Greco decided to take another stab at finding it, UPI reported.
They started their search around 1:15 p.m. Two hours later, the metal detector indicated there was something in the water, Rowell said.
The duo used a bucket to scoop up debris from the pond, and on their second scoop, there it was!
“Brought the muck up, put it in and Kathy screamed,” Tom Greco told WMUR. “She saw the ring and it was (in just the same condition as) the day he dropped it.”
Decades after it slid off his finger, Steve was reunited with his class ring. Images show his initials engraved inside.
“In times of COVID-19, these are the best things to happen,” Kathy wrote online.
Barrington is roughly 80 miles north of Boston.
This story was originally published October 4, 2020 at 9:42 AM with the headline "Class ring lost skipping stones in 1967 found 53 years later in New Hampshire pond."