In late March we received a call from Cindy in Lake Wales, Florida. She had found a UGA class ring in the parking lot of Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club and put it in her jewelry box until calling the Alumni Association.

"Give that ring to me!" her husband joked while she was on the phone with the Alumni Association. "I'll buy you a ring," she told him. "This one belongs to someone else and I want to make sure they get it."

It turns out the ring belonged to UGA Alumni Association member Larry Murkerson '72, '77 of Lafayette, Ga. While visiting family in Haines City Murkerson played golf at Southern Dunes and misplaced his ring. His family turned their home upside down searching for the ring. The Alumni Association contacted Murkerson to verify he had lost his class ring and he contacted Cindy. Below is part of his note to the Alumni Association:

"Words cannot express how much this means to me. I talked with Cindy earlier today. Acts of kindness and determination like hers helps me keep faith in people. She is going to mail my ring to me in a couple of days when she can get it insured before mailing. I shall never take our alumni organization for granted. Being able to connect with my ring is absolutely wonderful.

It is funny that this great news comes just before I finish my doctorate at the University of Alabama (hopefully mid-May or early June). I am very proud of the fact that I am already a UGA alum. Some of my close friends wonder why I sometimes wear UGA stuff and sometimes wear Roll Tide stuff. But you can bet that once I get this particular ring back on my finger nothing will ever replace it. Besides my wedding ring, it is the most precious piece of jewelry I will ever own. Go Dawgs!"

Thank you so much for contacting me. When I received a call from the UGA Alumni Association, I was so surprised. The fact that your student found this ring in such a random place (not sure that I have actually been to the store), worked with you to contact the Alumni Association, contacted my old job in Atlanta, who then contacted me here in Dallas...is a great story!

I believe that the ring your student found actually isn't an SEC Championship ring; it is my Senior ring. I swam at the University of Georgia for four years and served as the captain my senior year. During that time, we won two National Championships and two Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships. My senior ring means the most to me because of the triumphs and trials our team went through over that four year period.

Please send me the name of the student and the address of your school so that I can thank him/her properly for their honesty and effort to find the owner. I look forward to getting my ring back!

Thank you again for your help!
Sincerely, Stephanie Buck

Jonathan Ross '99 of Buford, Georgia received his second UGA class ring on September 26, 2005 after Balfour gladly replaced his original which was cast improperly. The following month while tailgating at the homecoming football game, Jonathan forgot his ring on the sink after washing his hands in the men’s restroom at the Science Library. When he returned for it, the ring was gone.

The following Monday, Carla Dunn ’95 emailed the Alumni Association requesting help locating the owner of a ring her father found. The Alumni Association, with the help of Balfour, located the owner by the serial numbers inside the ring, which was Jonathan’s. The first thing he said when the Alumni Association phoned was, "You aren't by chance calling me about my class ring, are you?" He was ecstatic to get his ring back…again.

In the summer of 2003 Karen Morey of Houston, Texas was relaxing on the beach of Georgetown Lake when she dug her hands in the sand and found a UGA class ring with the initials GPM. After a few unsuccessful efforts to locate the owner, she contacted the UGA Alumni Association which indentified Pete Martin '74 as the rightful owner. Pete thought he would never see his ring again after his son lost it three summers earlier while wearing it at the lake. "My son is even more glad than I am that the ring was found," Pete said. "He felt worse about losing it than I did."

In the 1960s, Dr. Robert A. Wells '56, '73, and his family vacationed on Mt. Rainier in the Cascade Mountains near Seattle, Washington. While at an overlook viewing area near the lodge Well's class ring slipped off of his finger. Sometime later, he noticed that his UGA class ring was gone. Robert was sure that he would never see his ring again. Last month, Ralph Fidler from Oregon called the UGA Alumni Association, to see if we might be able to connect him with the owner of a UGA class ring. Though the name of the owner was engraved on the inside of the ring, Fidler was embarrassed that he had not called sooner, having had the ring for over 20 years which he found on Mt. Rainier. The ring was in great condition, and soon reclaimed by Wells who is a retired faculty member of Georgia Southern and living in Statesboro, Georgia.

In December 2003, Chad Oliver '03 and Bradford Swann '03 with some of Chad's workmates from WDTV Channel 5 in Clarksburg, West Virginia were enjoying a skiing weekend at Snow Shoe Mountain. While there, Chad spent a part of this time digging Bradford's car out of the snow and lost his UGA class ring in the parking lot.

In June 2004, Paul Barker was working construction at the Snow Shoe Mountain resort, and in a grassy area near the mountain lodge he found Oliver's UGA class ring. He held on to it for a couple of months, intending to get it back to its owner. Paul finally called the Alumni Association in August to see if we could help locate the owner. Chad was located on his cell phone by the Alumni Association. He was thrilled to get the news of his lost ring. He was sure that he would never see it again.