Lost ring reunited with owner
Published: April 11, 2007
Reunited — and it feels so good.
That’s what John M. Cronin, a veteran Seymour police officer, was experiencing when a very special package arrived for him in Thursday’s mail.
Tucked inside an envelope, nestled in protective bubble wrap, was the class ring that Cronin lost the summer after he graduated from Seymour High School in 1965.
“It’s amazing,” Cronin said, after opening the black velvet box that housed the ring he purchased 42 years ago for $175 as a fond memento of his high school days.
Although Cronin, 60, can’t recall exactly where he lost the ring, he figured it could’ve happened when he and some friends, who were preparing to ship out for duty in Vietnam, were enjoying the horse races in Great Barrington, Mass. Cronin remembers removing the ring to wash his hands in the men’s room, and sticking it inside his shirt pocket. He believes the ring may have slipped out through a small hole in his pocket.
But how the gold ring with the blue stone, emblazoned with the SHS mascot, the wildcat, ended up in the junk drawer of retired public works employee in Adams, Mass., still boggles Cronin’s mind.
That worker, Peter Sobon, said he was rifling through his desk drawer last week when he came across the ring. Sobon believes he found it some eight to 10 years ago while on the job, either cleaning a storm drain or sweeping the road, with his town’s road crew.
“When I originally found it, I just put (the ring) in the desk drawer, and it sat there for quite some time,” Sobon said. “When I came across it again, I asked my son to help me find out where Seymour High School was, in hopes of finding its owner, with the initials JCM.”
Thanks to the Internet, Sobon came across several Seymour high schools, including those in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. Luckily, Sobon made his first call to Seymour High School in Connecticut, and after a short conversation with school secretary Sue Cirkot, learned that the only person with the initials “JMC” from the class of 1965 was John Michael Cronin.
School Security Director Richard Kearns then contacted Cronin at the Police Department and asked if he still had his class ring. When Cronin told Kearns he had lost it shortly after graduation, Kearns knew the ring was about to be returned to its rightful owner.
“It’s such a great story,” Kearns said.
Cronin immediately called Sobon, who polished the ring, had it insured because of its sentimental value and slipped it into the mail earlier this week.
“I just think it’s amazing he (Cronin) is still in Seymour, and I found him,” Sobon said. “And now he’s got his ring back. Sometimes the past does come back, but this time, not to haunt you.”
Cronin said that while the ring no longer fits, he plans to keep it in a special place so it doesn’t get lost again.
Cronin joked that his wife, Ellen, who he began dating in high school, told him that had he given her the ring to wear around her neck way back then, it never would’ve gotten lost in the first place.
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