Walter Kilby, R’64, had given up all hope he’d ever see his long lost class ring.
Sometime back in the late ’70s or early ’80s — it’s been so long he can’t remember precisely when — he returned home from a family trip to North Carolina and realized he’d lost his ring.
More than 30 years later, he’s now reunited with it.
“It’s amazing that it’s showed up,” Kilby said. “I couldn’t believe it when I got the call from the alumni office that it had been found.”
The story of how Kilby, a pediatrician in Culpeper, Va., reunited with his ring had many twists and turns before coming full circle (see sidebar). Gayle Cannon kept it safe for nearly three decades.
“It was just on the beach. We didn’t have a detector; we just saw something shiny,” said Cannon, who found the ring at the Outer Banks. Cannon tried a few times to contact the University before the advent of searchable databases to see if someone could help find the rightful owner, but her most recent attempt was the most successful one.
“I know how special my class ring was to me,” Cannon said. “It’s one of the things my son wanted the most of mine to have as a family keepsake, so I imagine his kids will really appreciate this, too.”