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Lost and Found - A True Story
by Ron Thorne
On an evening in the late 70's/early 80's, my wife and I attended a concert event at West High Auditorium. During the intermission, I went to the men's restroom, and before leaving the restroom, stopped to wash my hands. As was often the case, while washing my hands, some soap became lodged under my Anchorage High School class ring, so I removed it to finish washing and rinsing my hands. For some reason, I dried my hands and forgot to pick up my ring, leaving it on the back of the sink when I returned to the auditorium. As I was more intent on not missing any of the music, I hurried to my seat totally oblivious of what I had done. That was a big mistake!
At some point later that evening, before we left the building, I realized that my AHS class ring was no longer on my finger and panicked. When I checked the restroom, it was gone. I made a few futile inquiries with ushers and others who might have known something about a ring found in the men's restroom, but to no avail.
I chalked this experience up as another painful life lesson. After some phone calls to the school and leaving our phone number with the proper authorities, I was convinced that I'd never see my ring again. While I knew that no one else would really have much use for it and it wouldn't be worth much to pawn, I figured that whoever had discovered my ring on the sink that night would have absolutely no way to know who the rightful owner was.
Fast forward to a memorable evening in 1993, when our phone rang and after answering, my wife said that it was for me. When I answered, the voice on the other end said, "Hi, Ron, it's Glenn Harding. I went to school with your wife, Patti, at East High." I said, "Sure, I remember you, Glenn." Then Glenn asked, "Ron, did you lose your high school class ring?" My heart raced, then I said "Yes, I did -- years ago." Then, Glenn very matter-of-factly said, "I have it. If you're going to be home for a little while, give me your address and I'll bring it by." I said "Sure, but how did you come up with my class ring?" Glenn then told me that his father, Eric, had passed away very recently, and while going through his personal belongings had discovered this Anchorage High School class ring from 1961 with the initials RT on it. So, Glenn managed to get an Anchor yearbook and pored over it, painstakingly looking for likely owners before settling on me. Within an hour, I had my high school class ring back, after giving Glenn a bear hug and shaking his hand repeatedly.
I attended my wife's East Anchorage High School 40th reunion this past weekend (June 23rd & 24th, 2006), and was pleased to be able to shake Glenn Harding's hand once again. He now lives in Idaho, but visits Alaska each summer. We all continue to be amazed by a still unknown series of events which caused his father, a carpenter, to wind up with my wayward class ring. It's a mystery, but one with a very happy ending.
I've included a photo of my Anchorage High School Class of 1961 ring, now reunited with its owner in a most unusual and remarkable way.
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